A Different Dawn
by MyLuckTookAWalk
Summary: Series of one-shots, AU, OOC, each chapter will be a different story, Ch33: "I-It's inappropriate!" He stated. His deep voice sounding uncharacteristically awkward as he stumbled upon his words. "What's inappropriate, Tsuruga-san?" She tilted her head in a faux innocent manner that seemed more seductive than anything else. "You're my Senpai and I'm your Kouhai...R&R please!
1. Ch1: Sniper

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello! I know what you're thinking! where's our next chapter on your other fanfiction? don't worry The Touma-Kun chronicles will still be updated, and has top priority, it's just that I thought this was a good idea, erm, about the idea... maybe I should explain, this will be a series of one shots (Shock! lol well, duh all I ever write are oneshots), but not just any one shots, it will be a series of AUs, I'm crazy about AU fanfics and I thought why not? anyway every chapter will have a different setting and a different plot, they will be OOC, don't say I didn't warn you, but give it a shot, may be you'll like it? this will be a trial chapter, let me know if you like the idea and I'll see if I'll go through with it, suggestions, requests, corrections and REVIEWS are welcome! Enjoy!

* * *

 **Ch1 : Sniper**

Kyoko looked through her rifle scope, she had been camping on that rooftop for six hours now, she could see her target, crystal clear, she could hear Kanae's voice through her ear device

"I'm hacking into the system now… done! You're good to go Tsuruga, all access cleared!"

"Alright guys I'm going in" sounded the voice of the number one agent.

"Roger, I've got you covered." said the sniper.

"I'm counting on you Kyoko, don't get me killed" the young man, in the tux said, as he walked through the Hotel lobby.

"Heh, who do you think I am?" she said with a snort.

"MO! you two, enough with the bickering, if this fails president Lory will make ME go undercover!"

"We all know how much you like that..." said Ren, with a chuckle.

"That's right! so better not screw this up!" said Kanae with a huff.

"Don't tell _me_ that, she's the one behind the trigger." Replied the amused young man.

"But _you_ 're the one isolating the target" said Kyoko calmly, while following his every movement through her scope.

"No pressure, huh?" the young man laughed nervously, stoping at the entrance of the conference room.

"Ok, so on the count to three swipe your access card, I'll be disabling the lock." Kanae typed furiously on her keyboard.

"One"

"Two…"

"Three!"

*Access granted*

"It's all up to you two now, I'll be on standby to disable any alarms but…"

"Relax, Moko-san this isn't his first time."

Ren walked towards a group of businessmen, who seemed to be deep in conversation, the conference room was full of peaople, men in suits and tuxedos, beautiful women in elegant dresses, high class food and a lot of beverages, he fit just right into the crowded room, with his confident aura.

"Takezawa-sama, may I have a word with you?" he said, addressing one of the men.

"Hmm, go ahead my boy" said the man in question, after throwing a calculating look at the young man, probably to guess which company's CEO he was.

"In private." Added Ren, with a serious look on his face.

"Important business, I see" he chuckled "excuse me gentlemen" Takezawa waved his hand, then he glanced at Ren "well, follow me Boy!"

As planned, Ren was now inside the old business man's hotel room, they were now both seated on the facing chairs, separated by a small coffee table.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure, Tsuruga-san?" the elder man said.

 **"Oh no! Kyoko his cover got blown"** yelled Kanae through the ear piece.

On the other hand, Ren only arched an eyebrow.

"Don't give me that look boy, I know the agency's been after me, of course Lory would only send his finest hound, anything less would be an insult…"

 **"Kyoko! What are you waiting for?!"** Kanae was freaking out, why wouldn't she? This was bound to turn into a disaster, Ren had to go unarmed because of the security check, and going into hand to hand combat would cause a commotion, the old man was no rookie, and he would put up a fight.

"So what's your plan now? You're definitely weaponless, and if you attempt to take me out bare handed my men will be here in an instant" Takezawa was now standing by his cupboard, screwing a silencer into the muzzle of his own gun.

Ren just stayed silent and collected, an indifferent look on his face.

 **"Kyoko! He's gonna get killed!"** yelled kanae, by now she was wondering if the young sniper knew what she was doing, wasn't the target supposed to be dead by now?

"I see, I guess you were planning on slipping some sort of poison in my drink, or maybe you're hiding a needle in that expensive tux of yours?" he said, taking a few steps towards his guest "You youngsters think you have it all figured out, don't you? Sorry to break it out to you boy, but I know every trick in the book, I've been in this business long enough" he smirked "now, any last words?" he said, aiming his gun on Ren's head, his forefinger tucked behind the trigger.

"Sleep tight" said Ren with a slight smirk.

"Huh?" Kanae exclaimed.

"Smug bastard" Kyoko murmured, reflecting his smirk.

Thud!

Ren sighed in relief as Takezawa's dead body hit the floor.

Kanae laughed hysterically, Kyoko knew exactly what she was doing, and Ren knew better than not to trust her.

"This is the last time I'm on you nut jobs' team, I'm done with this!" she said.

"But Moko-san, I needed him on the right angle" Kyoko explained as she disassembled her sniper's rifle.

"Yeah Moko-san, why couldn't you just trust Kyoko-chan like I did?" teased Ren, making his way through the hotel exit.

"I can see you sweat you know?!" said Kanae, looking at her computer screen, which showed Ren's movements.

"Hmm? Were you scared Ren-kun?" said Kyoko, making her way through the streets, getting a few admiring looks, who would suspect the sweet girl in the summer dress, carrying a guitar case.

"Not at all Kyoko-chan, it's just too hot in this get up" He said, shrugging off his jacket and yanking off his bow tie.

"Whatever! I'm going home" Kanae yelled.

"What? No celebration?" asked Ren, grinning slyly, and making a couple of young women swoon.

"Yeah, Moko-san, come play with us!" pleaded Kyoko in her best innocent voice.

"You guys go ahead" she said "as if spending time with you in work isn't bad enough" she added in a low mumble.

"I heard that!" said Ren.

"Moko-san, that's mean!" added Kyoko.

"Mo! Bye!" said Kanae as she disconnected her ear device.

* * *

 **A/N: So how was that? liked it ? not? want more? don't ? let me know !**


	2. Ch2: Yes, Chef!

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi everyone, Thank you for supporting this fanfic! The response to the first chapter was satisfying, so I'm keeping it up, here's the second AU chapter, please notify me if there are any mistakes. Enjoy !

* * *

 **Ch2 : Yes, Chef!**

"Honestly, Tsuruga-san I don't know what to say?...I've tried everything, but there's no other way of putting it, you are completely useless!" Mogami Kyoko, the chef of the ' _Aurora_ ' restaurant, scolded her newest recruit, the young man in question, was 4 years older than she is, but that didn't stop her from going into a long rant about his mishaps, she was the boss, and she was not afraid of showing it.

"As a waiter, you caused a mess, and all the female costumers, well, the ones who didn't faint, that is, started flirting shamelessly with you, although the reason why is beyond me, a restaurant is a place for food, not romance." she said.

"Mo!That is wrong on so many levels Kyoko" said Kanae, a beautiful pastry chef and Kyoko's best friend.

"Moko-san, I'm trying to make a point here!" said Kyoko with a sigh "Back to you, now" she turned to Ren again, oh, by the way that was his name, and the reason to Kanae's comment was: he is drop dead gorgeous and only Kyoko seemed to miss that.

"The same problem happened when I assigned you as a busboy, instead of you cleaning the tables, the costumers offered to do it instead, what a disgrace!" she said that last sentence a bit louder than necessary.

"I'm really sorry Mogami-san." He said, looking up at her from his 'proper kneeling position' as Kyoko called it.

"And when I tried to put you in hidden sight, turned out you can't even hold a knife!" she said "You burnt my favorite pot, and I only asked you to boil water in it!" she said, silently mourning her beloved pot.

"Kyoko-chan, don't you think you're being a little too harsh?" the maitre d'hotel voiced, he was honestly pitying the young man.

"Yashiro-san! Who on earth burns water?" she asked the bespectacled man, who seemed a bit older than her.

"And when I thought you couldn't make things any worse, you destroyed half my plates, how hard is it to wash a dish?"

The subject of her fury looked up at her with a pair of puppy dog eyes, and for a second her heart softened.

"Don't look at me like that" she warned and he looked down again.

"Kyoko-chan don't you think you should give him a chance?" Yashiro-san pleaded.

She sighed, rubbing her temple.

"Tsuruga-san, be honest with me, why are you here?" she asked.

"I want to become a chef!" he said confidently.

"Pffft, Mo! Thank god everyone else's gone, if the rest of the staff heard that, they'll make a joke out of you" Kanae said, laughing at his words.

"Moko-san!" Kyoko warned, she didn't tolerate out of place remarks.

"I see," she was addressing Ren again "there's a long way to go, and you'll have to at least clean up before locking up the place to earn your paycheck."

Ren looked up at her in amazement; he couldn't believe she was giving him a break.

"Does that mean I'm not fired?" he asked, adorably tilting his head to the side, with a hopeful expression.

Kyoko ignored him before carrying on with her instructions "First of all, a knife is not held like a dagger! You're not stabbing anyone, this is a kitchen not a dark alley, got it?"

He nodded, smiling at her sarcastic tone.

"We have a delivery service, can you drive?"

"yes!"

"Good, you'll also do that, after the closing I'll be teaching you for a while, do you have a problem with staying a couple hours?"

"No."

"Sometimes, it'll have to be early in the morning before opening up."

"I'm okay with that"

"Alright, we'll start with the basics, after that you'll be doing some recipes, so when you're not delivering, make sure to observe the cooks and learn each recipe, in theory at least."

"Yes!"

"Tsuruga-san, you better be serious about this, do not make me regret keeping you." She said.

"Yes, Chef!"

* * *

 **A/N: so? How did you find it? Please tell me ^^ Oh, I take requests by the way!**

* * *

 **Now, I'll be replying to the Guest reviews of the previous chapter!**

 **Guest1:** I'm very happy you liked it, and as for writing more, trust me I tried lol this was initially a longer fic, but I couldn't go further with it, and a one shot was the best I could do, but maybe if you'd suggest some ideas … lol, thanks for the review, I hope you liked this chapter.

 **Guest2:** Lol thank you, thank you, you're too kind *bows humbly*, here's more! Did you like it? and as for letting Ren and Kyoko play, trust me, I'm incapable of writing something like that, it would turn out completely awkward, and fanfiction dot net would ban me forever lol, thanks for the review

For the people **who have an account** in here, I answered privately, and to all **the silent readers** , thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I hope you liked it.


	3. Ch3: Suck it up

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello guys! this is the third AU, I hope you'll like it, if you have any suggestions don't hesitate to let me know, also, please tell me if there are any mistakes. Enjoy!

* * *

 **Ch3 : Suck it up**

Biiiiiiiii

'Ahhh, this is so frustrating!'

iiiiiiiiiii

'Come on, come on, come on!'

iiiiiiiiii

'Come back!'

iiiiiiii

"Mogami-sensei! STOP!" a male voice yelled.

iiiiip

She looked up at him, panting, sweat dripping from her face, 'why did he have to do that!'

"He's gone." He said.

'Why did he have to say it!'

"I need you to call it."

"No." she said in a low voice.

"Call it."

"Tsuruga-sensei-" She desperately tried to stop him from making her face reality.

"Time of death…" he said, with a cold voice.

"Eleven forty nine AM." she finished his sentence, before storming out of the ER.

"Mogami-sensei!" a nurse called.

"I'll handle it" Dr. Tsuruga said, with a raised hand.

* * *

Dr. Mogami Kyoko, surgeon, Neurology, current state: an emotional mess.

She was standing in the middle of the hospital garden, staring at nothing in particular, she never took it well when she lost a patient, what kind of doctor would.

"You couldn't have done anything." , Dr. Tsuruga Ren said as he stood by her side.

She glared at him.

"You were keeping it up for twenty minutes." he stated.

"I know."

"I had to have you call it."

"I know."

"You can't just do that every time you lose a patient."

"I know! Senpai, I know, Okay?!" she yelled.

"Then why do you keep doing it?"

"I…I can't help it." She said looking down.

"It's not your fault, we're not gods, we don't heal people, we just treat them, sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't, and that's just how it is, we can't do anything about it, except keep doing our job and trying our best to save the next patient" he sighed "If you can't understand that, you're not the doctor I thought you were."

Kyoko looked at him, with a hurt and somehow guilty expression, she hated disappointing him, he was her mentor and those kind of words coming from meant that she was failing.

"So, do you understand?" He asked her.

"Yes." She said, determination written all over her face.

"Good, now, go back inside and show me the doctor I know you are!"

"Yes, senpai!"

* * *

"Hello, Akira, I am Dr. Mogami , and this is Dr. Tsuruga , we'll be your doctors from now on." Kyoko said, addressing a 6 year old girl.

"So... you guys will take out that tumor off my brain?" the child said expectantly.

"That's right, we'll work very hard to make you feel better." Kyoko smiled brightly, and the little girl smiled back at her, her eyes full of hope.

Ren just smiled fondly at the exchange, his kouhai never changed, she always needed a good scolding to put herself together, always tried again just as hard, and was always great with children.

* * *

 **A/N: Cue Skip beat chapter 226, the chapter cover that is! lol that's where I got the inspiration, Dr. Ren looked awesome! so how did you find this chapter? do you still want me to keep going?**

* * *

 **Sara :** Hi there, I'm glad to see you reading another one of my works, it means a lot, I will do my best to keep updating, thanks for the review!

 **Guest1 :** Lol I'm glad you enjoyed it, and it's good to know that Ren wasn't too OOC, I hope you'll like the other AUs to come. Thanks for the review!

 **Guest2 :** Hello, I'm really happy to see you're enjoying yourself, and as for your request, do you mind to elaborate? I really want to write it, but I'm not sure I completely understand, do you mean you want an AU where Ren thinks Kyoko left him while she's just asleep in the next room? Please let me know! and I'll write it, promise! Thanks for your review!

 **All my readers:** thanks a lot for your support, I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the chapters, and that you're having fun!


	4. Ch4: Reunion

**I do not own Skip Beat! ...I do not own anything actually!**

* * *

Hello, Just to make things clear, this is a series of AUs, the characters will be OOC and each story will be a different one shot, Open endings will be very frequent so, use your imagination, Please let me know if there are any mistakes please, now, I leave you with the fourth AU story. Enjoy!

* * *

 **Ch4: Reunion**

Kyoko was running late for her first day at work, she was walking at an incredibly fast pace, holding a folder in one hand and her lap top in the other, it didn't help that she was wearing high heels, though her outfit was simple, black pants and a baby blue button up shirt, with a grey Coat that complemented her long black hair.

'Shit, shit, shit, I'll be late!' she thought as she took another turn, the faculty building was like a maze, but she knew where her lecture was supposed to be held.

"Mogami?" she was halted by a male voice calling her name "Mogami Kyoko?"

She turned to see who was seeking her, hoping that it wasn't the dean, he had been wanting to speak to her, but this was not a good time, instead she was met with a rather familiar face, she tilted her head and squinted her eyes slightly, as if to better examine the man "Tsuruga Senpai?" she said in an incredulous voice.

"So it is you!" the young man said, he sure was happy to see her, if the look on his face was anything to go by.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" she asked, half flustered, half surprised.

"I work here, what are _you_ doing here?" he asked, grinning widely, hands in his pockets.

"Um, I-I work here too, starting from today." She said, she was very pleased with herself, she didn't think she'd be able to speak so normally when she first saw him, Tsuruga Ren was her senpai at the university, she was a prodigy, so she had skipped a couple of years, and even though he was 4 years older than her, he was only two grades her senior, they got along well, one would almost say they were friends…erm, she had a crush on him but he didn't need to know that.

"Really?" he asked.

"yeah…" she answered nervously glancing at her watch, meeting her senpai again was great and all, but she needed to get going, ASAP!

"Oh, I guess you should go now, how about we catch up later, say, at lunch?" he asked, with a hopeful expression.

"Sure, where-"

"I'll find you, go now, you wouldn't wanna be late." He said as he made a gesture to shoo her away.

And with one last bow she resumed her running, faster than ever.

On the other hand, Ren was more than happy, he thought he saw an illusion when she walked by, she looked more mature, and grown up but he recognized her on the spot, those golden orbs were one in a million after all, he couldn't wait to talk to her again, see how much she changed and what she was working at, and most importantly, he wanted to know if his old emotions would resurface, he was after all, very much in love with her when they were younger.

* * *

They were now seated in nice little café, near campus, the university had a decent cafeteria, but it was too crowded at lunchtime.

"So,… long time no see, huh?" Ren said, smiling at her, they had already ordered and now they were waiting for their food.

"Yeah, what? like… four years?" she was very much aware that she was blushing by now, but she continued speaking anyway "So, are you a professor?"

"No, actually, I'm an assistant professor, I teach Visual Basic Programming, how about you I still don't know what you do?"

"I'm a lecturer" she smiled "design and analysis of Algorithms, we'll see how that goes…" she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Oh, so we're in the same department, that's great!"

"Well, duh, we were both majoring in computer science in case you forgot." she teased, obviously more relaxed than she had been earlier.

Ren laughed heartily "How can I forget? when you'd practically come to me every other day yelling 'Senpai! I need your help' in your all too dramatic way."

"That's mean!" she pouted, "I also remember helping you, it's basically thanks to me that you didn't die of food poisoning" she retorted.

Ren's face went blank for a moment, then they both started laughing at the memory.

"Good times, huh?" he said between laughs.

"Yeah, especially that time you almost set fire to your dorm room." she giggled some more.

"What can I say? I was very talented!" he haughtily straightened his back.

"Yeah, destroying an entire dorm sure requires a lot of talent!" she admitted in mock praise.

"Well, you're still as sarcastic as ever."

"I try." she said as she shrugged her shoulders "So, what happened? the last time I saw you, we were saying goodbye, before you set sail for the states."

"Ah, right… well, I'm back!" he said raising his arms in a 'TA-DA!' fashion.

"I can see that!" she chuckled "So what? MIT was too mainstream for you?" she joked, and he laughed again, she was still the same little brat he knew, sarcastic and adorable.

"No, actually, that went out very well, but this is home, I had to come back sooner or later." He had a serene expression on his face as he said that, and his lips curled into a gentle smile.

"Hmm, no regrets?"

"None." He said, his smile turned into a confident one instead.

"That's good, welcome back!" she said, the waiter was back with their food, and after asking if they needed anything else he excused himself.

It was a pleasant meal, they made small talk as they ate, and talked about the good old days, until Ren broke the patern.

"So, I see a ring…should I stop calling you Mogami?" he asked, trying to not look too disappointed.

"Huh?" she was lost for a moment, then she gave a small laugh as realization hit her "No, this is a friendship ring, Moko-san gave it to me." She caressed the little silver band lovingly.

"Oh, Kotanami-san right? Are you guys still in touch?"

"Yeah, she's working for Microsoft Japan now." She proudly informed, Kyoko LOVED her best friend, she wished they were sisters, and even back at the days everyone knew how close they are.

"That's great, so would it be safe to assume you're single?" He tried to sound casual.

"They still call me the ice queen, if that's what you're asking about."

Ren choked a little on his drink, he was relieved to hear that, but he didn't expect to hear her old nickname again, Mogami Kyoko aka the ice queen, she had been dubbed so because she rejected everyone's attempt to ask her out, for her it was all about studying, who needs boys when there is an entire library waiting for you, some girls even said that her beauty was a waste, not that she ever cared.

"How about you senpai, from what I recall, you used to get confessed to at least three times a day."

"Ah, well, single!" he held two fingers to form a V, which made Kyoko snort.

"Come on now, don't tell me the hottest guy on campus has not found his match?"

"No, sadly," he said, faking a sad expression, then he snapped his head back at her "You really enjoy teasing me don't you?" he asked.

"This is just revenge, remember how much _you_ used to tease me?" she accused.

"But I did it with love~" He said, in a sing song voice.

"Haah, right!" she pointed her forefinger at him "see, you're doing it again!"

They kept chatting until it was time to go back, and they left each other with a promise to hang out again sometime, who knows? Maybe the hottest guy on campus would succeed in melting the ice queen's fortress now.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, that's it! tell me what you thought of it! and if you have any requests, ask away, I don't bite! lol thanks for reading!**

 **Sara:** Lol I think we all want Ren to be our privat doctor xD thanks for your support it means a lot, I'll do my best to update whenever I can, I hope you'll like the rest of the chapters! thanks for reviewing!


	5. Ch5: Huh?

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello, guys, this is the fifth AU, It was a request from **Guest/G2** (you always write G2 in your reviews, so unless you're giving me your name, that's what I'll call you lol), thank you for inspiring me, I hope you'll enjoy it, let me know if there are mistakes please!

Oh, and Btw…

 **Let me explain why I can't turn any of the oneshots into full stories** ( for those who want to know, if you don't care you should just skip this lol ) , first of all, I'm absolutely incapable of writing romantic scenes, seriously, why else do you think half my stories are about a baby XD, funny: I can do, cute and fluffy : so far, so good, Lovey dovey: Error, the writer will now self destruct! (I'm not even exaggerating, trust me, I tried lmao), also, I never succeed in writing stories with real progress and character growth, I always hit a dead end, so if I do turn one of the oneshots into a longer fic, it'd probably end up being another series of oneshots with only action and/or humor in it XD it's one big vicious circle, see how awful that sounds? But hey, if you want that, by all means let me know, and we'll talk about it XD and finally, I don't really have the time, if I'll write a longer fanfic I'd have to plan the chapters and do some research and that'd take time, that I unfortunately do not have at the moment with school and club activities and…life! So l'd only be able to do so in the summer, which -I assume- won't work for you.

 **So… thank you for reading my long, lame list of excuses x) and for those who didn't read it, that's okay, I would probably have done the same XD**

* * *

 **Ch5: Huh?!**

He woke up in a miserable state, his sore throat made him cranky and the rays of sunshine that hit his eyes made him even more so, he covered his eyes with one arm, and he threw the other across the other side of the bed, wait…something's wrong, why is it empty? He abruptly sat up and looked around the room, and when he realized that she was nowhere to be found, he really freaked out, had she left him? Was his first thought, damn, if she did, he might as well go die somewhere, she was the only thing worth living for, in his damned life 'No, no, she didn't, she's not the type to just take off', he tried to get out of bed but the headache that came crashing at his head kept him from doing so, leaving him blind at the same time, so he sat for a few moments, at least until he regained his vision, 'think! Where could she be?' damn it, he didn't have time for that, she might be in danger, and knowing Kyoko, she could get herself in some deep shit!

"Yashiro!" the thought struck him like thunder, he grabbed his phone and dialed his friend's number.

"Hello?" a voice greeted through the phone.

"Yashiro! Is Kyoko with you?"

"What? No! Ren what's wrong?"

He didn't even answer the man, he just hung up, thinking she obviously weren't with him.

'Oh god, Oh god, what if _they_ have her?' he started picturing the worst case scenario, if they got their hands on Kyoko, things were going to get ugly! Being an undercover detective came with its risks, and when his cover had been blown in his last mission investigating the yakuza, those risks were taken to the next level, but one thing was sure, Kyoko is off limits, if it's their doing, he swears to god…he'll make them pay…

 **Flashback**

 _"So what now? pretty boy, your true identity has been revealed, it's just a matter of time before the boss asks for your head, don't tell me you're still going to resist" the despicable gangster said "look around, there's nowhere to go, you're trapped like a rat!" he snorted._

 _Ren didn't answer, he just planned his escape thoroughly, and when it was the right moment he executed it._

 _As he walked through the dark empty streets, all he could hear was the replay of his conversation with his real boss earlier…_

 _He had given the operator his ID and badge number, and when she had linked him to his boss through a secure line, he told him what happened, and all he had to say was "Damn, that's a bummer, you were doing pretty good too, guess we'll have to put you on witness protection program, go somewhere safe for now, I'll contact you later to go through the details."_

 _'You've got to be kidding me', witness protection program! After all he's done, being on the force was his entire life, and now they were gonna make him live in some suburb, doing some sort of desk job, not a chance in hell!_

 _So the next thing he knew, he climbed on his bed and drifted into a deep slumber…_

 **End flashback**

He put on a pair of black pants, a navy blue T-shirt that has been lying around, he put on his jacket and tied his boots, then grabbing his pocket knife he exited his room 'Time to go for a hunt' he thought to himself, as he made his way through his house's corridor.

"Ren?" a sleepy voice called him from the guest room.

He turned around, just to see Kyoko standing by the door frame, his shoulders relaxed in relief and he hugged her tight.

"Thank god, I thought Tanaka had you!"

"Tanaka? … you mean the yakuza-guy character from your drama?" she asked incredulous.

'Huh? Drama?' he thought, he pulled away and looked at her as if she had grown an extra head.

"Kyoko what are you talking about?"

"Honey, are you sure you're okay? May be that cough syrup messed with your head a little bit." She carefully eyed him with a worried expression.

"What…cough syrup?" he said the words as if he had never heard of the damned thing.

"Yeah, remember? yesterday you came back home coughing your lungs out, and I gave you some, then you insisted I sleep on the guest room so that I don't get sick too."

"Ah…" realization hit him like a truck, it all made sense now, his sore throat when he woke up, and the lack of his wife by his side, and the fact that he didn't have his gun, well of course he wouldn't have a gun, he wasn't an undercover detective he was an actor!

"Maybe we should go see a doctor after all…" Kyoko said when her husband stayed silent for too long.

* * *

 **A/N: Please don't shoot me *ducks*... admit it I had you going for a while XD … or not, anyway to Guest/G2, I bet you didn't see that coming lol sorry if it's not what you were expecting but technically I did what you asked : a delirious Ren freaking out about losing Kyoko while she was in the next room XD ahaha …god, I'm such a troll! Anyway, I still hope you guys enjoyed it, please give me a piece of your mind in the reviews!**

 **Sara :** you're most welcome thank you for taking the time to read and review, and about them being loey dovey: Oh, don't we all want that, honey, don't we all…but unfortunately I'm not the right person to write it xD

 **Guest/Kris XD** (I'm not sure if XD is a facial expression or if it's a part of your name lol) **:** I'm super happy that you liked them, and I already answered the second part of your review above :'( I really wish I could write a full fic ... thanks for the review!

 **Guest/G2** : okay, sweetheart this chapter is all for you! I'm sorry about your second request though, a date would require a minimum amount of romance and I don't trust myself to write that, as I have already explained above, hope you'll enjoy this one though! Thanks a bunch for the inspiration! Happy holidays to you too, no matter what you're celebrating! (I'm not celebrating Christmas but we have another celebration going on tonight!) Love you!

 **To all the readers:** thank you so much for putting up with me! **I love you all** , hope you're still enjoying what I write!


	6. Ch6: Sticks and stones (part1)

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello guys…First of all thank you for not killing me for yesterday's chapter XD I realize how sly it was, I'll try not to do that again (no promises though …lol just kiddin! Don't hit me XD ) anyway, this chapter was laying around for about a week, I had planned to make it a long story, I already had the plot figured out, but the whole no romance, no progress thingy made me drop it, however Kris XD's request fit it perfectly, and when I saw it, I knew it was meant to be published X) so Kris XD, this is dedicated to you hun! hope you like it, let me know if there are any mistakes please!

* * *

 **Ch6 : sticks and stones (part1)**

Kyoko Mogami, 21, Tokyo's finest detective, as those stupid articles described her, she hated the attention, being a female, and a detective at such a 'young' age made her the Tokyo PD's mascot, it was a hindrance, really, kept her from doing her job properly.

She was now at the morgue, Dr . Kotanami was briefing her about the autopsy results of the victim, Midori Ryuu, 41, he was found in the elevator of his building, blunt force trauma, in other words he was hit on the head, hard.

"The tox report didn't show any signs of narcotics, cause of death is, as initially established, blunt force trauma" The young coroner said "However, during external examination, I did find some skin under the victim's fingernails, I already ran the scrapings through the system, no match."

"Any bruises or other signs of struggle?" The black haired detective asked.

"No, I think this was his last move, the attacker came to him on the front, he hit him on the head, and as he was going down, he grabbed into his attacker's arm."

"I see…"

"By the way, where's your shadow?" Kotanami asked, she was close to Kyoko, one might even say, the two women were best friends.

And right on cue, said shadow walked in, buttoning up his jacket.

"Sorry I'm late." Detective Tsuruga said, Kyoko looked at her partner, while Kanae just rolled her eyes, god, he was annoying! She honestly couldn't stand the man.

Tsuruga Ren was a young detective, very talented, he was recently transferred from America, apparently he was a legend in LA PD, upon his arrival, he was assigned with Kyoko.

 **Flashback**

 _"Captain with all due respect, I don't need a partner" she said, clearly frustrated by her supervisor's decision._

 _"Mogami, that's not up to you to decided" Takarada Lory bluntly declared "Plus, this will do you good, working in a team, that is."_

 _"I already have a team."_

 _"I meant on the field, you need a stable partner, you can't just take one of the Ishibashis every time you go out to investigate."_

 _Kyoko just glared at him._

 _"Come on Kyoko, give it a shot will you? What do you have against him anyway?" her boss coaxed._

 _"It's not him I have problem with, I don't even know the man!"_

 _"Then what's this about?"_

 _"I…It's just that…partnership is built on mutual trust, and I don't know if I can do that." She looked at him, with a cold expression, but her distant eyes showed…pain._

 _Lory knew all too well what this was about, Kyoko had…trust issues. And he didn't want to bring that up now._

 _"Just one case."_

 _"What?"_

 _"Pair up with him on one case, and if you still think the same, I'll drop the subject."_

 _"Do I really have a choice?" she sighed._

 _"Nope, as I said this is an order from your superior." He grinned slyly._

 _Before Kyoko even had the chance to retort, Lory had already called in the new guy._

 _"Ah, Ren, come now, meet your new partner."_

 _The young man walked towards the captain's desk, Kyoko got up to address him._

 _'What? He's pairing me up with a pretty boy?' she thought, sending a glare to Lory 'Well built though, he might come in handy.'_

 _"Hello detecive, I'm Tsuruga Ren, nice to meet you."_

 _As he extended his hand to shake hers, Ren was doing his own assessment of his new partner 'Is this some sort of joke? She's a kid, how old is she? 19?' he was brought out of his musings by her strong voice though._

 _"Mogami Kyoko, it's good to meet you too." She said as she shook his hand, with a blank expression 'There it is, that look, he thinks I'm too young and incompetent.'_

 _'Hmm? Strong grasp, and steady voice, very professional, not bad.' He thought._

 _"Alright, let me introduce you kids properly, Ren, don't be fooled by her young face, Kyoko is our best detective, her record speaks for its self" He said, addressing the young man, who was now seated facing Kyoko, while both of them were across Lory's desk._

 _"Mogami, Ren was on the LA PD's elite team, he's 4 years older than you, but seeing how mature you are, this won't be an issue."_

 _They both nodded, each of them deep in his own thoughts about the other._

 _"Well, then, Mogami, why don't you fill Ren in about your new case." Lory finally said, after an awkward silence._

 **End Flashback**

Kanae snorted at Ren "What? Got lost on your way here, pretty boy?" she said.

"Good morning to you too, doctor," Kyoko smiled at their bickering, why they never seemed to get along, was something she'd never know "matter of fact, no, the captain asked me to drop by his office." He retorted, with a smirk.

"Is something wrong?" Kyoko asked him.

"No, don't worry about it." He told her, his eyes softening for a moment, there, that's what Kanae had against him, he was obviously into her ever oblivious best friend, and she didn't like it.

Kyoko turned back towards the coroner "Kanae, is that all?" she asked.

"Yes, I'll let you know If I identify the murder weapon."

"Thanks." she said before turning to Ren "let's go, I'll fill you in on the case."

The two detectives left the morgue, and headed to their office.

* * *

Starring at the evidence board, Kyoko sighed, then turned towards Ren "The witness interrogation didn't show anything new, and all we have is the skin scrapings from under the victim's fingernails…Ugh, this is going nowhere!"

"We've probably missed something…" Ren said, leaning on his desk leisurely sipping his coffee, and just then, Kyoko walked closer to the board, and stared hard at a particular picture of the victim "What?" he asked.

"Tsuruga, don't hits like these usually leave some sort of spatter, and with a head wound like that, there would have been a minimum amount of bleeding."

"And yet, the elevator's completely clean…" He completed, as he came to stand next to her.

"That means…"

"The murder took place elsewhere." They said in unison, grinning at each other.

"Come on, let's go back to the crime scene." Kyoko said, picking up her car keys.

"Shotgun!"

"We're the only ones in the car!" she snorted.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright folks that's it for today, Phew, you have no idea how much research I had done for just this chapter XD, if you liked it I might make it a 2 parts story and add a continuation, so let me know okay?**

 **UPDATE :T** **here will officially be a second part, I already have it written xD**

 **Guest1/Kris :** I love that attitude of yours, I adore people like you, I personally use 'XD' a lot, actually it's kinda my favorite smiley lmao, anyway… Awww, I'm so touched, I'm sorry for my incompetence to write a proper full story XD but I will keep doing my best in writing oneshots, So, about your requests…You have no idea how much I love you for asking XD I had this in my laptop for a while and it broke my heart not to publish it, but now I have an excuse to do that, so thank you! As for the second request I'll have it up by a week at most (and if I'm lucky, much less) so, don't worry, I didn't ignore it or anything, thanks for the inspiration and the cute review! I hope you'll like this chapter!

 **Sara :** lol I know I know I'm sorry XD I can be very evil sometimes, but I'll behave from now on x) , you're welcome, I love updating for you guys, and I'm glad you're still enjoying this, in other words, I'm happy that your happy! Thank you for the wonderful review!

 **Guest2/G2 :** I'm glad you liked it XD I will definitely write a chapter for your second request, I'm really excited to do that actually : D , please be patient though, it might take a couple of chapters before I post it, thank you for the inspiration and the nice review!

 **Guest3 :** Awww, thank you so much! I'm glad you liked them!... I know sweetheart, I wish I could do that too, but hey! I hope you enjoy the rest of the stories : D thanks for taking the time to read and review!


	7. Ch7: Sticks and stones (part2)

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello, so this is part two of the sixth AU : sticks and stones (and the longest chapter I've published so far lol) , This was originally supposed to be a longer fic, but then I dropped it, I had the first part ready and when **Kris (this is still dedicated to you btw)** requested something similar to it, I decided to publish it, however this continuation had been written after that, so thank you for inspiring me to finish it, couldn't have done it without you! I hope you like it! Let me know if there are any mistakes please!

* * *

 **Ch7 : Sticks and stones (part2)**

Back at the crime scene, Kyoko and Ren tried to examine the elevator closer, they checked its every corner, and even used a black light to make sure they didn't miss anything in case it had been cleaned.

"Nothing, nada, none." Ren said, passing his hand through his hair.

"Let's think, the elevator has access to every level of the building, the victim's house has already been examined, nothing came out, that leaves us with …just about every other house in the building!" she sighed.

"Mogami?"

"What?"

"If you kill someone and then transport the body, you'd have to use something to move it in, right?"

"Yes, but Kanae said there weren't any post mortem bruising remember? If the victim had been put inside a bag or some sort of cart, it would have shown in the autopsy." She reasoned.

"What if he was dragged here?"

"Then that would have made quite a bloody mess… literally! There would be some sort of trail." She said "you think the culprit would have gone through the trouble of cleaning that? And risk being seen?"

"Oh, why not?" Ren said as he shone his black light on the floor, Kyoko followed behind him, but there was nothing to be found.

"What now?" she said, hands on her hips.

Ren just shrugged, indicating he had no idea.

His partner paced around for a bit, then she abruptly turned to look at him.

"You know…" he raised his eyebrows "We never checked the dumpster."

"There was no need to do that." He said.

"But, what if there was, what if you were right…what if" she said, flashing that cheeky smile of hers that showed she had a Eureka moment "…the victim had been dragged here?"

"Come on, I'd love to play guess but we don't have the whole day, what if you just tell me what you're thinking?"

She bit her lip, still smiling "Come on!" she grabbed his wrist and dragged him away.

* * *

So she was, standing in the middle of the dumpster situated behind the victim's building, going through an assortment of leftovers, diapers and…

"Aha!" she exclaimed, as she broke the surface, her search had obviously been fruitful.

"Found what you were looking for?" he asked, crossing his arms, Ren had passed on the dumpster dive, since he didn't know what he was supposed to look for anyway, and Kyoko didn't mind doing the dirty work. **(A/N: no pun intended XD)**

"Yup!" she got out, a plastic bag in her gloved hand, and as her partner pulled on a pair of rubber gloves of his own, she opened the said bag, spread its contents on the ground and there it was…

"Son of a …" Ren half sweared under his breath.

"I knew it!" she whispered.

They were now staring at a huge plastic sheet, covered in blood, alongside a hammer, that solved the murder weapon mystery.

"That's how the culprit managed to drag the victim without moving him, the sheet was laid on the ground, and when the victim dropped dead, he fell straight on it!"

"Uh huh," Kyoko nodded "This way the murderer could drag him without making a mess, take him to the elevator, than just pull the sheet from under the victim!"

When they examined the alley, they found blood splatter on the wall behind the dumpster, so turns out, that was the actual place in which the murder took place, they packed the evidence and went back to the headquarters to make sure it matched the victim's blood.

* * *

As they walked through the building Kanae ran into them "Good, I was looking for you, after some calculations, turns out your murder weapon is a-"

" **HAMMER!** " Ren interrupted, she blinked at him "You just couldn't help it, could you?" she said, in a venomous tone, while he just stuck his tongue out at her, Kyoko shook her head chuckling at them.

"Thank you Kanae, all you have to do now, is run this blood sample and see if it matches the victim's DNA," Kyoko said handing her an evidence tube "And here's the hammer."

"Mo! If you already knew you should've told me!"

"We just found out ourselves! Plus your work isn't in vain, it just backs up the evidence!" Kyoko said cheerfully.

Kanae faked a smile and turned back to her lab, thinking 'God, I hate him!'

* * *

At the office, Kyoko and Ren were staring at the pictures of the witnesses turned suspects.

"It could've been anyone!" Ren said.

"You don't say?" Kyoko said rolling her eyes, as Ren shot her a glare.

"What? it's our job to find out who did it!" she said.

"Well, Kanae said that the DNA test from the skin scrapings showed that it belonged to a female." Ren stated.

"So, the next door neighbor, the janitor and the brother are clear." Kyoko took down their pictures, narrowing their suspect list.

"That leaves us with the wife, the business partner and every other woman in the building!"

"We can discard the ones with alibis, the Ishibashis interrogated everyone in the building and only two of them didn't have proof of their whereabouts at the time of death." She said.

"So, guess we'll have to bring them in…yay!" Ren threw his hands up in mock enthusiasm, as he sighed.

"Oh, come on, we can-"

"We're not doing Good cop/Bad cop again!" he growled.

"But women love it when you're the good cop, they practically confess on the spot!" she teased.

"Mogami!" he warned.

* * *

 **in the interrogation room…**

"Mrs . Midori Aiko, this is an official interrogation regarding your husband, Midori Ryuu's murder, thank you for your cooperation." Kyoko said.

"Um, Sure." The victim's wife seemed devastated, her eyes were red-rimmed, and dark circles showed her obvious lack of sleep.

"Where were you yesterday evening between 6 PM and 8 PM."

"I was at my office, working late, we had a dead line, and I had to have all my articles ready to be published." Mrs . Midori was a newspaper columnist.

"And when did you come back?"

"Around 8:30."

"Mrs . Midori, did you and your husband have any … problems?"

"No, we were doing fine, Ryuu had been taking longer to come home lately but I understood, his job was important."

"Did your husband say whether he encountered some problematic people? Someone who held a grudge against him maybe?"

"Um, No, Ryuu was a good man, he kept his business clean, he didn't deal with shady people!"

"Mrs . Midori that might be the exact reason why he was killed." Kyoko affirmed, while the subject of her interrogation looked down, holding back a sob.

* * *

"This is detective Tsuruga, holding an interrogation with Suzuki Mia, the victim's business partner." Ren spoke, the recorder had been placed at the table between him and the suspect.

"Miss Suzuki, do you mind telling me what your business is?" he began.

"We specialize in computer manufacturing; Midori-san was my business associate." The pretty lady said, she was dressed in a classy black dress that stopped at her knees, a fancy white coat and red high heels, a pearl necklace at her neck with matching earrings, simple, but elegant.

"How would you describe your relationship with your late associate?"

"Strictly professional."

Ren raised an eyebrow, he expected something in the lines of good or maybe agreeable, but 'strictly professional' sounded a little cold.

"Did you ever encounter any problems? Any threats perhaps?"

"Detective Tsuruga this is a competitive business, threats was something we dealt with on a daily basis." She answered.

"Any ones that stood out?"

"Not particularly."

"I will need to go through them though." He informed.

"Sure, I'll make sure you get a copy of the e-mails."

"No, I'll be sending someone to fetch your computers."

"Detective, I have a business to run, I need those computers!"

"And I have a murder to solve!" he glared at her "one last question, where were you last night between 6 PM and 8 PM?"

"Home, alone!"

"Don't make any plans to leave town." He said before heading out of the interrogation room.

His next interrogation was pure torture one of the neighbors kept getting distracted … by his face, that's why he hated interrogating women without Kyoko, she had her way to intimidate them into cooperating.

hers on the other hand, went smoothly, the elder neighbor was more than willing to cooperate, which made her work much simpler.

* * *

 **At the office…**

"So we're back to square one…" Ren said

"I think it's safe to eliminate the two neighbors, Mrs . Yamaka could barely make it through the door, I don't think she could have been able to drag the victim with her weak constitution" indeed, the elder neighbor was 82 years old, and couldn't have been able to drag a 180 lbs dead body.

"And the other one lacks the …wits, to plan a murder." Ren added.

"What? you're gonna make that kind of assumption without any concrete evidence?" she said, chuckling.

"Trust me, Mogami… she couldn't even stay focused for 5 seconds." he said, removing their pictures from the evidence board.

"Alright, so that leaves the wife and the associate."

"Hmm, I like her for this…" Ren said slightly smacking Suzuki's picture with two fingers.

"Because she didn't fall for you?" Kyoko teased.

"Tsk, no, she's hiding something."

Just then Ishibashi Yuusei walked in.

"Guys, check this out," he said holding up a little evidence bag "We finished going through the victim's car, and we found this under the passenger seat."

"what the hell is this?" Ren asked, staring at the little piece of metal inside the bag, Yuusei shrugged "Dunno, I brought it to you as soon as we found it."

"Let me see…" Kyoko said, taking the bag from Ren "Oh, this is a butterfly clutch back!" she said.

Both men stared at her for a moment, before they spoke at the same time.

"A what?" Ren asked.

"That's a butterfly?" Yuusei yelled.

Her face went blank for a moment, before she explained in a way they could understand "This is sort of a... bolt for push back earrings, supposing the earring is a screw, that is."

"Ohhh…" Ren blinked twice.

"Ahh…good to know!" Yuusei nodded "Well, that's all for me, good luck guys!" he said as he went back.

"So," Ren said "Is this the kind of thing that would hold a pearl shaped earring in place?" he asked.

"I suppose."

He smiled, crashing his fist on his palm, it was his turn to have a Eureka moment "I told you I liked her for this!" he said.

* * *

 **Back in the interrogation room…**

"Miss Suzuki, do you know what this is?" Kyoko asked, holding the bag of evidence that had the butterfly clutch back in it.

"Obviously." The woman snorted.

"This was found in the victim's car, and we believe it's yours." Ren said.

"And why is that?" she asked, trying to look amused.

"Well, besides the victim's wife, who's ears are not pierced by the way, you're the only woman who had contact with him." He answered.

"We also collected DNA from the victim's car, I'm sure if we compare it to your own, it'll be a perfect match," Kyoko said, pushing a sheet of paper towards the woman "This is a warrant for a swab of your saliva, and a sample of your blood."

"Come on miss Suzuki, we can do this the hard way or the easy way." Ren affirmed.

Their suspect went silent for a moment, then, she swallowed hard, and looked up.

"Ryuu and I, we…"

"...were having an affair, weren't you?" Kyoko questioned.

"Yes." Suzuki confessed.

"So what? he didn't want to leave his wife for you? Is that why you killed him?" Ren asked.

"What? killed him? No!" the woman said, in a panic "I admit to having a …secret relationship, but I didn't kill him!"

Kyoko leaned towards Ren and whispered "If we compare the DNA from the scraping to hers, we can know for sure." Her partner nodded, and they proceeded on collecting the samples from their suspect.

After a while Kanae called Kyoko to inform her that the two samples don't match, and so they had to let Suzuki Mia go.

* * *

Walking back towards their office, Kyoko suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"What's wrong?" Ren looked at her frozen state.

"I don't know why it took us so long to realize this," she said "...we should've known the moment the results turned out negative," she palmed her forehead "the motive is there!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Infidelity!" she yelled "The wife did it!"

* * *

 **At the interrogation room, for the Nth time…**

"You know, when he used to say he couldn't come home early, I used to feel sorry for him, I used to think 'Aww, he's working so hard, I'm so proud of him' , I was so blind," They were now recording the wife's confession, Kyoko examined her arms and found scratch marks, they hadn't seen them before because they were covered with her shirt's long sleeves "And one day, when I decided to surprise him, and brought him dinner to his office, I heard them..." Mrs . Midori took a shaken breath "he called her 'sweetheart', he called her that, and then, he came home and called _me_ that!" she sobbed "and yesterday, when I confronted him, he said, he didn't love me anymore!" she yelled.

"A blow to the head, usually, that's common in crimes of passion, a spur of the moment kind of thing," Kyoko said "But, you,... you had everything planned from the start, the plastic sheet, the hammer ... who walks around with a hammer anyway? the alley… you had called him to meet you at that back alley, you made sure to erase his call history, but we checked with the phone company, he received a call from you at 6:30 PM, in other words, you ambushed him . This wasn't a crime of passion, this was premeditated murder." Kyoko said.

* * *

 **At the office…**

"Ahhhh, nothing beats staying late enjoying paperwork at the office!" Ren joked as he stretched in his seat.

"What are you complaining about?" Kyoko said, slurping her ramen"we managed to solve this case in one day!"

"You sure did!" came Lory's voice, loud and clear making Kyoko drop her chopsticks, and every muscle in Ren's back stiffen "Another record, I couldn't be more proud!" the captain said.

"Ah, well, you know us, we just can't stay without a juicy murder to solve!" Ren said, his tone dripping with sarcasm, Kyoko pretended to choke on her food to mask her laughter.

"That's great, because I have another one for you!" Kyoko's expression turned into one of horror, while Ren sent a murderous glare to Lory.

"Is it yours? Because that can be arranged!" our detective said.

"Did you hear that detective? he threatened me!" Lory cried to Kyoko, who shrugged and said "I didn't hear anything!" and kept digging at her ramen bowl.

"Ahaha, I just love you kids, anyway, that was just a joke," Lory said, taking a step back "Enjoy your meal…and your paperwork!" and just like that, he was gone! Ren high-fived Kyoko, and they resumed on leisurely filling up their paperwork.

* * *

 **A/N: I just spent six hours writing this chapter XD you guys better like it and show that you liked it! Seriously, I'm not even kidding XD It's 6 AM, I didn't get any sleep! (Boohoo! stop whining you cry baby!) lmao ok, ok, I'm calming down, but please, do tell me what you thought of it! I had planned to include a part where Ren would read the wife her "Miranda rights" but I read that in Japan they weren't exactly the same, and then I realized there was no way to fit them in anyway, so yeah…(why is she telling us all this? Who knows?) XD Oh, god, the amount of research done for this one! I even had to look up what the butterfly clutch back was called because I didn't know that XD btw I named it sticks and stones because of the hammer, you know, a stone attached to a stick, yeah, nothing more XD I'm gonna read this tomorrow and feel so embarrassed about this rant! I love you guys for putting up with me! XD**

 **Sara :** you're welcome sweetie, here's the continuation, I hope you liked it, thanks a lot for your review and happy holidays to you as well!

 **Guest/Kris :** Awwwww thank you so much you're too sweet ! I'm so happy you liked it! here's the rest, I would do anything for you guys! and as for your other request, I already have it written, with any luck, I'll put it up tomorrow! thanks for the review, I hope you'll like this chapter!

 **Evryone :** thanks a lot for reading, your support means the world to me!


	8. Ch8: People like us

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello guys! This is written for Gues/Kris's second request, I'd like to thank you for the inspiration, I also would like to state that Yoshiki Nakamura's other manga 'Tokyo crazy paradise' (which I do not own by the way, put down that lawyer will ya XD) inspired me as well to write this, hope you'll enjoy it ( **long life to crime fanfics** …I just love 'em XD)

* * *

 **Ch8: People like us**

It was pitch black that night, the moon was hidden by the clouds, and not a sound was heard in Tokyo's dark streets, only a certain girl's whispers broke the silence.

"Kuon, why are we even here, you could have had one of your men do the job!" she hissed.

"You know very well that I can't trust anyone right now, I have to do it myself." He answered, the position they were in was…odd, to say the least, they were crouching by a window, in an abandoned building, Kuon was looking through a pair of binoculars, and Kyoko was using a listening device, she had done a fine job of installing a bug in the opposite building, in which the exchange took place.

"What makes you think you can trust _me_?" she said, in a cold voice.

"You're my body guard, I _know_ I can trust you." He said, matter of factly.

"More like your babysitter…" she muttered.

"What?"

"Shhh, I'm trying to hear what they're saying!" she scolded.

"I'm sure you are…" he rolled his eyes, and when she gave him her best glare, he got back to his binoculars.

* * *

 **Two hours later…**

"How did we end up like this again?" he asked.

"You yelled _'it's them, those bastards!'_ making sure half Tokyo was able to hear you." She answered in a monotone voice.

"Huh! …why didn't you stop me?"

If Kyoko could, she would be doing a facepalm right now, but, unfortunately, in their current situation, it was impossible…they were hanging upside down, tied to each other in what looked like a giant half cocoon, Kyoko's ponytail was touching the water, yes, they were tied in parallel to one of the beams holding up the dock, yes, they were in a port, and yes, the tide was rising.

"Damn…those yakuza guys are so twisted, couldn't they just shoot us?"

"I'd like to point out that _you_ 're a yakuza guy too," Kyoko said, annoyed "In fact you're the _head_ of a yakuza clan, a very incompetent one, I shall add!"

"Kyoko-chan! That's mean!" Kuon whined.

"Shut up!" she snarled.

"Ouch!" he yelled.

"Oh! …did I poke you?" she asked.

"Yes!...what are you doing anyway?"

"I'm trying to cut through the ropes, genius, what do you think I'm doing? starting a camp fire?" he was starting to get on her nerves, as in more than usual.

"Chill! no need for the extra dose of sarcasm!"

"Oh god, grant me patience! not only am I doing all the work, but this idiot won't stop talking! …couldn't they gag him or something?"

"Aww, you say that, but the truth is you couldn't live without me~" he sang.

"I'll have you know that I would live just fine…in fact I can't even imagine a better way of living!" she retorted.

"Stingy!"

"Almost there…" she said, as she passed her pocket one more time through the rope…and, splash!

"Aaaah!" Kuon was the first to break through the surface, then she followed "Nice job, Kyoko-chan!" she just ignored him and swam back towards the hard land.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"We need to stop the ones who betrayed your trust, Oh mighty Kuon-sama." she rolled her eyes, honestly, how come he was involved with the yakuza, let alone be the head of a clan?

"Right!"

* * *

 **Half an hour later…**

"There they are! Those-"

"Don't you dare!" Kyoko shushed clapping her hand on his mouth "It's that colorful vocabulary of yours that got us here in the first place!", when he nodded she released him.

"So what's the plan?" he asked.

"You're the boss, you tell me!"

"I'm more of an improv kind of guy!" he sheepishly grinned at her and this time she did facepalm herself.

"We should at least secure some guns."

"You're right!" he looked around for a moment "I'll take the guy on the left, you get the one on the other side!" she nodded and they split up, indeed, the place they were in was an old warehouse, the men who were inside used to be a part of Kuon's clan, until he discovered that some of the amo from his armory was missing, just to find out that it's been sold in the black market to other clans, and since it was obviously an inside job, he had no choice but to personally take care of it, which brings us to the current situation.

Kyoko had grabbed one of the watchdogs from behind, clapping one hand on his mouth and wrapping her other arm around his neck until he passed out, she then took hold of his weapon, Kuon, on the other hand, was much less …subtle, he just punched his victim, knocking him out, and earning the attention of everyone else in the warehouse, Kyoko sighed In frustration "You idiot!" she yelled, no need for the secrecy now, since her beloved boss had ruined every chance at a surprise attack.

Everything happened in a split second, their enemies reached for their guns, but Kyoko and Kuon were faster, they started shooting, the girl took down her fair share of men, and he managed to drop the rest of them with a single bullet to the head, with flawless shooting 'Ah! Right!... I forgot he had this in him' Kyoko thought 'this is why he's the boss' was her last thought before crashing to the ground, truth is, Kuon only showed his playful side to Kyoko, amongst his men, he was known to be ruthless, cold blooded, and an impeccable leader.

Kuon ran to her, unfortunately, one of the men she was shooting at, shot back at her before going down.

"Kyoko! Kyoko wake up!" he yelled "Kyoko-chan come on!" he lightly slapped her face "come on, don't do this to me damn it!"

She didn't answer

"Oh god…" he held her close to him, struggling to keep the tears from falling, and failing at that.

"Ugh…" Kyoko stirred in his arms "What are you bitching about? … the mission wass a success, wasn't it?"

"Kyoko? Oh, thank god! I thought you were dead!" he said hugging her tighter than ever.

"What? what nonsense are you spouting?" she pushed him away.

"Well…you were shot!" she blinked a couple of times and then, the most unbelievable thing happened!

Kyoko shot him!

he held his stomach, with a betrayed look on his face "why?" he muttered.

Kyoko rolled her eyes "We're wearing vests, remember?"

"Oh!" he straightened his back, blinking his eyes a couple of times "Still, the impact hurts pretty bad, Kyoko-chaaaaan!" he whined again.

When they were caught the first time, their captors didn't bother stripping them of their bullet proof vests, since they had planned to drawn them anyway, it's funny how things turn out…

* * *

 **A/N: Ta-Da! Did you like it? did you think Kyoko really shot him? I wanted to use Kuon instead of Ren, because it felt that Kuon would act more…playful ? XD who am I kidding I just wanted to use him lol**

 **Guest/Kris :** Awww I'm so glad you do! _you_ 're the best! I hope you'll like this one as well, thank you for inspiring me! and for reviewing!

 **Guest2 :** Thank you so much! I'm glad we agree on that lol, may be there will be other chapters about that team in the future, thanks for the review!

 **Everyone :** thank you guys so much for reading, reviewing adding to your fav or/and alert list, you're awesome and I hope you'll enjoy this!


	9. Ch9: and he scores!

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello! This chapter was inspired by **Guest/G** 2's request in their review on chapter 5, I hope you'll like it, sorry it took so long (Btw, you're still not giving me a name? or maybe a nickname you can sign your reviews with? XD I got used to addressing you as G2 but still ...jk, what ever makes comfortable sweetie!) Anywa, this is dedicated to you! Let me know if there are any mistakes please!

 **PS: I recently discovered I've been spelling Kanae's last name as Kotanami while it's actually Kotonami, so, my apologies for that!**

* * *

 **Ch9: …and he scores!**

'Oh, how annoying!' Kanae Thought 'Serves me right for meddling with other people's business!'

it's just that she was so frustrated, when Tsuruga Ren, her senpai was dropping hints here and there for Kyoko, her best friend, who wasn't even noticing them or sometimes, overreacting to them, she just couldn't stand it! So being the manager of their high school's basketball team, and him being the captain, she took advantage of the opportunity after a match to have a little chat with him.

 **Flashback**

 _"Senpai, why don't you man up and tell Kyoko straight out how you feel about her?"_

 _"Eh?" he looked at her "are we talking about the same Kyoko here? Don't you know her enough to predict how she will react?" he said._

 _"So? That's because that idiot hurt her before, just be honest with her, and maybe she'll come around!"_

 _"You rang?" said idiot was standing at the entrance of the locker room, yes, Fuwa Sho was a member of the basketball team, as well as a huge pain in the … neck._

 _"Fuwa, get lost, this is a private talk." Ren snarled at him._

 _"Captain, captain, captain … everyone knows how you feel about good ol' Kyoko, and everyone knows that this is a lost cause," he said before addressing her "you're just wasting your time Kanae, Kyoko's too busy avoiding me, to notice him!"_

 _In fact, Fuwa Sho and Kyoko had been dating in their first year in high school, that is before he broke up with her for another girl, and since then she can't stand looking at him._

 _"Maybe if you just disappear from her surroundings…" their Senpai was now grabbing him by his collar, which was honestly understandable, the jerk had a talent for getting on people's nerves._

 _"Hmm? That **'** s interesting… how about this then," Fuwa said with a sly grin "Have a match with me, one on one, if I win, you'll drop out of the team and announce me as the new captain."_

 _"And if you lose?" Ren asked._

 _"I'll transfer out of this high school." Fuwa said "Another school wanted me to join their team and offered me to be the captain anyway, so I have nothing to lose." Kanae wanted to snort, Fuwa wasn't even close to being a good player, let alone a good captain, sure he was a member of the basketball team, but he was a mere bench warmer._

 _"Deal, just remember this was your idea, and don't try to get out of it, Kotonami-san heard your offer too."_

 _"Senpai what the hell!" She yelled "you're seriously gonna what this jerk wants?" 'what in earth was he thinking?' Kanae thought._

 _"You're the one who asked me to man up, and what's better than getting rid of this scumbag as a first step," he said, letting go of Fuwa's shirt "you'll be coming, and … bring Kyoko with you." He ordered her._

 _"You know that she won't agree to being anywhere near_ him _!" she yelled "And why do you want her there anyway?"_

 _"Because I'm adding a condition" he said turning to Fuwa "When you lose, you'll tell Kyoko you're sorry for what you did to her, and that you won't be bothering her any longer." Ren was not joking, you could see it in his eyes, good thing that the idiot was smart enough to know that, so he nodded._

 **End Flashback.**

So there was Kanae, standing in the middle of the basketball court, after everyone else went back to their homes, holding the basketball in her right hand.

When Kyoko tried to leave after first seeing who else was there, Ren had a talk with her, and convinced her to stay and cheer for him, he had explained what might happen to him at the end of the match, leaving out the part about Sho, and after scolding him for it, she agreed to stay.

"Alright boys, first one to score three baskets wins, doesn't matter how much points you get!" She signaled the start of the match, throwing the ball upwards and stepped away from them as they both jumped to get hold of it.

Ren dribbled the ball, he tried to get passed sho, but he was sticking to him like glue, so he tried to get rid of him doing an In-and-out cross, and it worked, sho was fooled, and Ren took the ball to the basket, he shoots, and he scores!

Kyoko clapped heartily and Kanae smiled, this was actually nice to watch.

"Damn!" Sho cursed under his breath.

Moments later, Sho had the ball, he went for a quick dribble, but Ren was doing too good at defending, it helped that he had a huge body, he practically blocked Sho like a wall, so as a desperate move, the younger man made a dirty move, he spun elbowing Ren in the process and tried to get passed him, luckily that didn't have that much of an effect and Ren managed to snatch the ball, he dribbled his way to the basket, he jumped, scoring with a beautiful dunk.

"Good job Senpai!" Kyoko cheered, Ren grinned at Sho, who was fuming with rage, he was actually enjoying that.

Ren moved with the ball, planning to score one last time and get this over with, he dribbled towards the loop, but sho managed to steal the ball, and score, that didn't seem to shake Ren, though, as he quickly moved to get the ball back, he reached his hand, and as simple as that, he had it, safe to say basketball's not exactly Sho's forte, or maybe he just couldn't measure up to Ren!

Ren dribbles, and effortlessly scores a 3-pointer, earning his victory and Kyoko's loud cheers.

"Tsuruga wins!" Kanae yelled, not that she needed to.

Kyoko walked to the court, she smiled at Ren and congratulated him "Well, I suppose this means you'll still be the captain!" she said, he nodded panting as he took a towel from her.

When Sho walked towards them, Kyoko turned to leave, but Kanae stopped her "I think you should stay a little longer."

"I won't take back what I said, a deal's a deal, and you won fair and square," he said, talking to Ren "Kyoko, I'm sorry if I hurt you before, but that's just who I am, we weren't right for each other-"

"Mo! You call that an apology!" Kanae rolled her eyes, what a brat!

"Let me finish!" he growled at her "But, I'm sorry that you had to go through that, you didn't deserve it, and I didn't deserve you," he bowed "you won't have to deal with me anymore, this is the last time you see me, good bye."

Kyoko looked puzzled for a moment, then she smiled at him "Good bye Sho."

* * *

"Senpai you don't have to act tough anymore we all know the place where he elbowed you hurts." Kanae said, as they all walked out of school.

"What?" Kyoko yelled.

Ren smiled sheepishly, holding his side "It didn't hurt when the adrenalin was pumping, but now that I cooled off…"

"Should we go to the hospital?" Kyoko looked really worried.

"Kyoko relax," Kanae waved her off "They go through much worse in practice, he can handle it."

* * *

 **A/N: and that's all! tell me what you thought of it please! By the way, in this high school AU, I had to changer Ren's age, and make him one year older than Kyoko, Kanae and Sho, I hope you guys don't mind but that's what's great about AUs XD I can change as much as I want and it would still be okay xD …alright maybe not that much, but still.**

 **Oh, and I'm sorry if this is not as good as it should've been, I don't know much about basketball, (and this was my second attempt at writing this chapter, after a lot of research XD) I actually had a friend of mine help me…a lot! (Thanks Titif! I owe you bro!) so if you'd like to correct anything, or have any remarks, please do tell!**

 **Krimson :** Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad you like it! I hope the rest of the chapters will suit your taste as well!

 **Guest/Kris :** I'm glad we're on the same page, I love Kuon *fangirling* I'm really happy that you liked it, thank you for your support It really means a lot!

 **Everyone :** thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it!


	10. Ch10: Fool me once

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi guys! This chapter is inspired by allsecretstaresweet's specific request lol , this is dedicated to you darling! I hope you'll enjoy it, and thank you for the inspiration! I'll try not to bore you guys with the details, and keep it as simple as possible, let me know if you have any remarks or if you want to correct any mistakes please! Enjoy!

* * *

 **Ch10 : Fool me once**

Kyoko stared at the poster hanging in front of her, then sighing deeply, she clicked her tongue "Tsk, there's nothing to do about it anyway…"

"Why the long face?" a familiar voice asked her.

She snapped her head up to meet his gaze, just to see Tsuruga Ren, an upperclassman, she also came to know him because of his rivalry with her childhood friend Fuwa Sho, for some reason, he seemed to enjoy teasing her as well, he wasn't particularly mean, but he wasn't the charmer everyone knew him to be around her.

"Hello, senpai," she said, in a monotone voice "how good to see you."

"Ah, the sweet smell of sarcasm in the morning!" he said smirking; putting his hands in his pant pockets he looked at the poster Kyoko was so interested in "Hmm? Is this what's making you so blue?"

"Doesn't matter, I'm not gonna participate anyway…" Kyoko said trying to brush him off…

"Why not?"… and failing.

"Heh…" Kyoko's face darkened at the memory, she had participated at the competition the previous year, working her butt off on the project, just to find out that her partner had presented it under his name, just his name! stealing all her hard work and the first place prize, she knew she had a bad feeling when he proposed to present it instead since she did all the actual work, 'serves me right for being naïve' she thought "Let's just say I have a bad history with this competition…"

"You mean because of Fuwa?" he asked with an amused grin.

"How did you-" she tried to ask how he figured it out just to be interrupted.

"Come on Mogami, half campus knows that he's not … bright enough to come up with a program like that himself!"

Kyoko snorted, he had a point, Sho might be in a computer science major, but he wasn't half as interested in studying as he was in flirting with young ladies.

"So, I heard he was participating with Aki this year…"

"With Shoko senpai? Really? What was she thinking?" Kyoko crinkled her nose in disgust, Shoko Aki was a very talented and hardworking classmate of Ren, she was known to be right after Ren and Yashiro in the upperclassmen's top students list, for some reason, Kyoko found it hard to imagine her and Sho as partners.

Ren shrugged "Wanna teach him a lesson?"

"What? With you?" she raised a brow, giving him a questioning look.

"I'm as fond of him as you are and I happen to have the time for some fun." He was giving her a cheeky smirk, as if challenging her, and without thinking twice about it, she had agreed.

"Deal, but we'll split the work in two." She said, leaving no place for arguments, 'fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me'.

"Fine by me!"

* * *

The contestants were gathered, the professors explained the rules to the competition one last time, they also reminded them of the time they were given and wished them good look.

The competition in question was different to last year's, that one had coding as a theme, each participant have been given a problem they had to solve by coding a series of programs in various coding languages, they then had to present their work, and the winner would be chosen based on the most optimal program, in that case, Kyoko's.

This year though, it was taken to the next level, the competition had a CTF theme, CTF stands for 'capture the flag', the contestants had to find a specific password to access a database, this was the University's way of raising awareness, and reinforce database security.

The competitors were placed in teams such as each team was in an individual booth, they were using the university's computers, and each of the challenges was designed in a different way, so that each team had to solve a unique challenge, instead of attacking each other's computers and defending their own flags, it was a jeopardy-style competition.

On their way to their booth, Kyoko and Ren spotted Sho, who wasn't wise enough to ignore them "Soooo? Found a new guy to take advantage of your work?" Ren had to physically keep Kyoko from choking Sho to death, "Easy! You'll get back at him when we win this thing!" he practically had to drag her away.

When they received the signal, all contestants started typing on their keyboards, going through data and analyzing it, Kyoko and Ren had cleared most of their way through, one step ahead of everybody else, Sho was casually leaning back in his chair, his feet resting crossed on the table, his partner was doing all the work, this was too advanced for him anyway, the only reason he was there was because he had been told that last year's champion must participate by his groupies, and he went and sweet talked Shoko to make her accept being his partner.

Kyoko stopped at the last clue, she tried to extract the password, but she ran out of ideas.

"Senpai, I'm stuck!"

"What's up?" Ren rolled his chair closer to her.

"This! The last clue was an audio track, but it's just gibberish, I tried slowing it down, reversing it, I even isolated the background noise and analyzed it separately, nothing!" she sighed as she removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose, they started off pretty well, how can she be stuck at this stage?

"Did you check the voiceprint?"

"Of course, the flag wasn't there."

"May be we should, try again…" Ren grabbed the mouse and opened the track with an audio editor, he clicked on the spectrograph feature, and the screen showed a visual representation of the frequencies, usually, in these cases, passwords show up as written numbers in the spectogram but this one just looked normal.

"See?" Kyoko wanted to bang her head against the keyboard, 'this is so frustrating!' she thought.

"Just a minute…what's this?" Ren squinted at the screen, he seemed particularly interested in the lower part of the spectrogram.

"There's some sort of pattern …" Kyoko said after catching up.

"yeah, this is…"

"Mors code!" she yelled, it was true, the pattern that they noticed was a succession of dashes and periods, they deciphered the code and got a chain of letters and numbers, all that was left was writing the password, and they would have access.

"Will you do the honor?" Ren said.

"Gladly." Kyoko smirked, and slowly typed the key code.

A message flashed on the screen to inform them of their success, and a host came to their booth, to escort them out, all that was left now, was to find out whether or not they were the firsts to clear the challenge.

As they walked towards the stage, Kyoko's heart almost stopped as she saw Shoko and Sho being escorted out of their own booth, had they cleared the challenge before them?

* * *

They waited for the rest of the teams to join them when the time was up, and everyone gathered on the stage that usually served for graduation speeches and formal events.

"Alright, thank you for your hard work, and let me say before the announcement of the winner, that you've all winners in this competition, you are now more knowledgeable and more experienced than before, and this was the purpose of this competition…" The professor that was announcing the result kept on talking, but Ren and Kyoko were more focused on glaring at Sho who had been smirking slyly at them.

"And now, please allow me, to announce our winners…" everyone went silent, holding their breath with a nervous expression, except for Sho, who, for some reason, was smiling from ear to ear.

"Mogami Kyoko-san and Tsuruga Ren-san! Congratulations!"

Sho's smile fell, and his jaw dropped, Kyoko's eyes went wide and Ren just smirked, he then turned to look at her as she jumped in her place laughing in joy before she turned to high-five him.

"May I please have your attention for a few more moments?" the professor pleaded, and Kyoko's heart skipped a beat, was there a mistake, was he going to announce another team as the real winners?

"In light of last year's events, the comity had decided to investigate the winner of the previous competition, and with Tsuruga-san and Shoko-san's assistance we have made the discovery, that Fuwa Sho was not the real winner, as he was deemed unable to produce the winning program, after today's competition it was confirmed that the one who did, was in fact Mogami-san!"

Kyoko clapped a hand over her mouth, she looked at Ren and who brightly smiled at her she mirrored his smile before hugging him tightly "Oh my god! Thank you!" she said as she pulled away.

"Uh…um…sure!" he said, blushing at the sudden contact.

The rest of the day was spent celebrating, and exchanging thought on each team's challenge, it was a pleasant experience to most people.

* * *

Sho threw a fit after learning that Shoko had been given the password from the start, she was told to wait for Kyoko and Ren to finish up, that's why they got out of their booth at the same time they did, Ren was not given any hints, he was supposed to assist Kyoko and find out if she had what it takes to make last year's winning program, so he and Kyoko still shared the prize which consisted of a week-long school trip to the university of Oxford.

"So, still have a bad history with that competition?" Ren asked as they sat on first class, flying to England.

"Not the least bit!" she said staring out the window with an excited smile.

* * *

 **A/N : SOOO? Come on guys tell me what you thought of it! By the way, the Mors code hidden in the audio track's spectrogram is a real thing, we were shown something similar to that in a steganography challenge in my computer science club, I thought it was awesome and thought why not include it, CTF challenges are real as well, for those who like you can google them, I'm no pro and still haven't tried one but I tried to create a similar setting I'm aware that in real life, CTF challenges are on a higher level and way more advanced so please forgive any inaccuracies.**

 ***Happy new year*, I'm thinking this is the last update for a little while, I'll be very busy preparing for the semestrial Exams (I'm terrified tbh XD ), and for those who read 'The Touma-kun chronicles' please forgive me for not updating, I'll be back by february at most and work on both fanfics !**

 **Kris :** Lol I love how you guys 'LOVE' Sho XD it cracks me up, I'm glad you liked the chapter, I was kinda worried about it not coming out right, Thank you for the cute review I wish you'll enjoy the next chapter!

 **G2 :** Lmao I'm so glad you liked it XD I was really worried you'd be disappointed by the chapter, thank you so much for reading and reviewing, and I'll do my best to update quickly once I'm back!

 **Everyone : thank you so much for reading these littles stories, I hope you'll have a great year!**


	11. Ch11: Kyoko-chan!

**I do not own Skip Beat! …or anything, actually…**

* * *

Hi guys! Ughhh 3 days back to school and I'm already exhausted T_T I missed you though, and I miss writing, This is a little chap I wrote in a hurry, In this AU Kyoko and Kuon are neighbors *Heart eyes*, hope you'll enjoy it, let me know if there are any mistakes please!

* * *

 **Ch11: Kyoko-chan!**

"Kyoko-chan!" little Kuon was calling her name from under her window.

"Kuon-kun!" the little girl in the pigtails greeted.

"Come down and play!" the 9 year old said, smiling brightly.

"Okay, but mom says I have to be back by lunch time!" the little girl informed.

"Alright, alright, just come already!"

Kuon Hizuri and Kyoko Mogami, lived in the same area, he was the son of the beautiful couple known to the entire neighborhood, she was the sweet girl next door, the daughter of a firm single mother, they spent most of their time together, mostly because both their parents were almost never home. **(A/N: lots of 'mosts' lol)**

"What is that?!" Kyoko whispered, eyes wide in curiosity.

"That's a centipede, you've never seen one before?"

"uh-un" she shook her head.

"Do you want to hold it?" Kuon said, picking it up.

The five year old grimaced at the wiggling insect "Eww, Kuon-kun this is gross put it down!"

Kuon just laughed at her "Maybe I should put it in your hair?"

"If you do that, I'll tell aunt Julie, and she'll make you eat a double serving at lunch!" she threatened.

"Oh, but," Kuon put the centipede down "I was just kidding Kyoko-chan!" he laughed nervously.

"No, you were bullying me!" she pouted "You meanie!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" he laughed, poking her cheek.

* * *

 _10 years later…_

"Kyoko-chan!" Kuon called as he threw pebbles at her window.

"Kuon!" Kyoko's eyes widened "What are you doing? it's two in the morning!"

"I need your help with something come down!"

"How? If my mom sees or hears me, she'll kill me!"

"Just jump, I'll catch you!"

"What?" Kyoko's voice went loud.

"Shhhht, you'll wake the entire neighborhood!" he said "Come on jump!"

"You're crazy!" she said, before putting on her coat "You'd better not drop me!"

"umph! Did you put on some weight?" he said, putting her down.

"Jerk!" Kyoko smacked the back of his head "What do you need my help for anyway?"

"We'll go egg that guy's car! You know, the one who asked you out the other time…"

"What? Why?" she brushed her hair behind her ear, furrowing her brows and looking left and right to make sure they weren't seen.

"Because when you rejected him and he said 'you're too ugly anyway' you wouldn't let me beat him up!"

"That's because I didn't care! I'm fifteen now, things like that don't hurt me anymore!"

"Yeah, well I'm not as mature as you are! Let's go!" he said, picking up a plastic bag, probably full of rotten eggs.

"If we get busted, my mom will kill me!" she said following him.

* * *

 _10 years later …_

"Kyoko-chan!" Kuon yelled her name, he made it a habit throughout the years.

"Kuon? What are you doing?"

"I forgot my keys! Open the door!"

"You could've called you know?"

"My battery died…" he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly "come on Mrs. Hizuri open up!"

* * *

 **A/N: hope you guys liked it, regardless of how short it is LMAO, I'm sorry about that, it's just that right now it's the exams and tests period, or as I like to call it, my Uni's own version of 'The Hunger Games' XD I'm honestly being academically beaten up (as** _mutemuia_ **put it, in one of her previous reviews) I just hope this semester will go by with minimal damage (That means I reaaaally don't want to repeat the year lol), anyway, this torture should end by January the 30th, that's when I'll be passing my last exam and I should be upadating more frequently by then!**

 **Kris :** I'm glad you liked that chap, if I'm lucky enough I might be studying in that major as well next year, I'm glad the chapter got you excited lol and Btw, I will be working on your request as soon as I'm done with my exams, so don't think I forgot about it or anything, however I might modify it a little bit, I hope that's ok with you (tell me if it's not please) Thanks for the review and for your support!

 **Guest :** Awww I'm glad you liked it, well, I'm sorry about not writing anything else for the _Sniper_ AU, I might do that when I come back, meanwhile check out the other chapters maybe you'll like them? thanks for the review, it means a lot!

 **Everyone : Thanks for reading, I hope you'll enjoys this, please wait for my return T_T**


	12. Ch12: Real friends are nasty

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello guys, this is another 'short' High School/Friendship AU, in which Kyoko, Kanae, Kuon and Yukihito have the same age, It will be a little while before I start updating with longer chapters (my last exam's on the 30th) so meanwhile, I hope you'll enjoy this! Let me know if there are any mistakes please!

* * *

 **Ch12: Real friends are nasty**

"So? What are you saying?" he looked at her with a serious expression.

"I'm just stating a fact!" she retorted.

"Oh! So you're an expert now?"

"I don't have to be an expert, anyone could tell."

"Says the dense one!"

"Hey!"

"What? I'm just stating a fact!"

She sighed "Look, you might want to deny it, but it's pretty obvious Ruriko-chan has a crush on you!" she said biting into her meat bun.

"And what do you suggest I do about it?" he said, taking a bite from 'her' meat bun as well.

"Hey! Eat your own, this one's all mine!" she protested.

"Yours tastes better, I don't want mine…wanna switch?"

"No, thank you very much, you're the one who insisted on the one with the red bean paste filling!"

"Aww, come on Kyoko-chan share with me?" he pleaded.

"Fine" she gave in splitting the bun in two, and giving him one half "Anyway, what I'm saying is, why not go out with her?" she advised her best friend.

'Honestly, this girl is impossible!' he thought 'not only she's oblivious to my feelings towards her, but now she's trying to set me up with someone else!' he sighed again "And why should I do that? It's not like I like her…"

"Maybe you will once you get to know her!"

Kuon didn't know if he should laugh or cry, this was ridiculous, maybe he shouldn't have gone into the subject when she brought it up.

"What are you guys doing?" Yukihito smacked Ren on his back and ruffled Kyoko's hair, surprising them.

"Mo! Do you have to sneak on them like that?" Kanae scolded, they were back from buying their own lunch, completing the group of best friends.

"I was just telling Kuon-kun that he should consider dating Ruriko-chan!" Kyoko said.

Yukihito and Kanae shared a nervous glance, both aware of their male friend's feelings towards their female one, then Yukihito smiled mischievously, winking at Kanae, who smirked.

"I don't think that's possible Kyoko-chan…" he said

"Mmm? What do you mean?"

"Yeah, I think he likes someone else…." Kanae added.

"Guys…" Kuon tried to stop them, catching up to their little play.

"What? Yuki-kun you knew about this too?"

"Well, I kinda guessed…" he answered

"It was hard to miss…" Kanae said, ripping her bread's wrapping.

"Kuon-kun!" Kyoko whined "How come I'm the only one who didn't know about this?"

"Kyoko-chan, come on, you know how cunning these two are, did you really believe them?"

"Oh, so tell me, Kyoko, did you never notice how Kuon's eyes would suddenly soften sometimes?" Kanae asked.

"Uh uh, and how he would smile without a reason when he spaces out in math period?" Yukihito jumped in.

"Or, when he sometimes blushes?"

"Or, when he becomes-"

"AAAARGHHHHGHHG!" Kuon yelled, as he moved to cover her ears "Kyoko-chan don't listen to them!"

When Kyoko struggled to remove his hands from her ears, he whispered a threat to his two friends "Listen you guys, I know you're probably having the time of your lives right now, but knock it off! Seriously!"

"Ohhh…" Kanae looked at Yukihito, in mock fear.

"Did you hear that Kanae, we're in trouble!" he said.

"Guys!" Kuon warned, under his breath.

And they both started laughing, clapping their hands in a high five.

"Ugh, what's wrong with you Kuon-kun?!" Kyoko yelled, after getting rid of her human ear plugs "What are you guys laughing about?"

"Hmm? Do you want to know who Kuon likes Kyoko-chan?" Yukihito asked.

"Nope, get up Kyoko-chan you're helping me do my science homework!" Kuon said, grabbing her hand and helping her to her feet.

"But, I wanna know-"

"There's nothing to know, move along, oh, is that Sawara-sensei?"

And just like that, they disappeared from Yukihito and Kanae's sight, leaving the two of them giggling at Kuon's behaviour.

* * *

 **A/N: so what did you guys think? Please let me know in the reviews!**

 **Kris :** I'm glad you liked the chapter, I hope you'll like this one as well, even though it's not the one you requested... speaking of your request, I have a confession to make, I already started working on it, and it was great how naturally it came out, however, what I gathered from your request is that you want a 'serious' fanfic, with a dramatic side and epic romance, and Unfortunately, I failed at writing that xD Writing your request turned into writing a humor fanfic, it still has what you asked for but it's way more light hearted and … I'm sorry, I'm a comedian trash, I can't keep a fanfic entirely serious XD, if you're still interested in reading something like that, I'll publish it, if not, I'll still publish it with a ton of apologies XD, but on the good side, there's a fanfic out there that has what you asked for, If you'd like I can recommend it to you, but you'd have to make an account and PM me because I'm not sure on the site's policy on talking about other writer's fanfics or if the author would mind having their story mentioned in my fanfic, so... whatever suits you I guess!

 **Guest :** Hello, I'm so happy you liked it, I'm not making any promises but I'll think of writing the fill ins you asked for when I'm back, It will take a little while though, so stay tuned, I just need to figure out how I'll be writing them, and have it up as soon as I'm done! Thanks for the review!

 **Everyone: thanks for reading, adding to your alert/favorite list adn reviewing, It really means a lot!**


	13. Ch13: Dear Diary,

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello, I'm taking the last of my exams this Saturday, and to be honest the only reason I haven't updated until now was because my dad cut off the internet for the exam period (talk about strict parenting :'( …) but it's true what they say, inspiration comes the moment you should be studying XD truth is I've written a bunch of fanfics, both for this series and other oneshots which I'll be publishing individually .

So… I'm back! This chapter was a failed attempt at writing something to fulfill Kris's request (Sorry about that again!) I still hope you'll like it though XD it's dedicated to you, thanks for the inspiration, everyone is just super OOC, but this is an AU so, why not! Let me know if there are any mistakes of any kind please!

Oh, btw, everything writting in _Italic is Kyoko's POV_ , everything else is the Author's POV.

* * *

 **Ch13: Dear Diary,**

 _May, 26th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _Today was as boring as ever, I worked at the library, walked around town and shopped for groceries, there was a big commotion about some rich guy moving in? I never got to hear all about it, but it seems he's some sort of inhumanly handsome heir, with the way girls act in this town, it'll sure be fun to watch._

* * *

 _May, 28th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _So, I was working in the library, minding my own business, when this gloomy (good looking) guy walked in, I didn't think much of it, and got back to arranging the shelves, and dusting the old books, until he marched to where I was, grabbed a book, and sat on the dirty floor, Indian style, in his expensive looking suit, I tried o help, letting him know that there's a place where he can read, it all went well, until the lady man who works with me came to me chuckling and saying she didn't think I'd be flirting with the new guy so soon, FLIRTING! ME! I WAS JUST DOING MY JOB!_

The young man walked in the local library, it was the first time he went there after he moved in this place, there wasn't anyone at reception, so after saying hello a couple of times he headed towards the shelves, slowly making his way through the racks, he found a couple of books that interested him, sighing he sat on the floor, as he was flipping through the pages of one of them, he needed a book related to his never-ending work, he wasn't complaining, he loved his job, it's just that there's so much to do, and it didn't help that his father's expectations were so hard to reach, the man demanded perfection in every aspect! That's why he was here, doing research, in the library of the town he had to move to, in order to supervise one of his father's company branches.

A soft voice addressed him, interrupting his musings "We have a reading space in the back if you'd like to sit down and check that out!" they meant the book he was holding.

He lifted his head to see where those words came from, his eyes traveled the length of a ladder standing against one of the racks, and there she was, placing a book on the shelve, then slowly making her way down, wearing a black, flowy, knee length dress, sleeveless with a white collar, a pair of frameless, rectangular glasses resting on her nose, behind them were a pair of bright golden eyes, she had her black shoulder length hair held in each side of her face with white clips, she looked so simple yet so elegant.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" she said.

Realizing he was staring at her, he made himself say something "Hizuri Kuon!" he said, extending his hand for a handshake 'smooth!' he slapped himself inwardly.

The young lady chuckled, it wasn't everyday that a guest would introduce themselves "Mogami Kyoko, nice to meet you Hizuri-san." She said shaking his hand.

"Um, It's my first time visiting actually, I'm still looking around." He lied, he was just embarrassed by the fact he was doing research on teacups for his next meeting with the daughter of a potential associate.

"Oh, well then, if you're interested in a particular genre let me know, I'll point you to the right direction!" she said with a smile.

"Thank you."

And with one last nod she went back to her spot in the reception desk.

* * *

 _August, 3rd_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _Today was weird, really weird, I was grocery shopping, and the library guy (that's the gloomy guy from last time, I call him that because he started coming to the library almost every day after that) came to me asking about pesto, for some reason he was confused on which brand to buy, until I told him that he was …mistaken, he started laughing, then he begged me to help him shop…what a weird guy…_

Kuon walked through the super market aisle, looking for pesto, whatever the hell that is, his mother, -who was visiting and decided to cook for him- instructed him to look for the green stuff in a jar, so he did, confused after reading the label he looked around for a worker to help him, just to find his library girl, Kyoko, well, technically, she wasn't his…yet, but he was convinced he had a crush on her, regardless of the fact that the girl was a total beauty, she was also naturally poised, contrarily to all the females he'd met -save for his mother- she didn't throw herself at him, or try to shamelessly seduce him, she treated him like everyone else she met, -he knew that because he basically stalked her at every chance he had after their first meeting- and besides delivering a blow to his ego, it was also like having a breath of fresh air, he also had a crush on her brains, it seemed like there wasn't a thing that girl didn't know, whenever he would ask about a book, she'd know which one and what it talked about, she was also very open minded and didn't seem to judge him for his research subject, not that there's anything wrong with trying to know more about an ant's digestive system.

So, with a deep breath, he decided, to ask her, she must know what to do.

"Kyoko-san?"

"Oh, Hizuri-san, how are you?" she turned to whomever was calling her.

"Umm, confused, I was trying to get pesto sauce, but I don't know which brand to get, could you help?" he said, holding up to jars of 'the green stuff'

"Uhh, Hizuri-san, that's not pesto, that's …pickle…" she said, a bit confused, was he being serious? But the expression on his face said he was.

"Oh? … is it?" he said, slowly nodding his head "Kyoko-san, I'm gonna be honest with you, when it comes to food, I'm clueless, would you please help me get what's on this list?" he said with pleading eyes "It's a life or death situation!" he said 'as if mom needs any help to mess up a dish!'

Kyoko frowned, what was so deadly about a jar of pickle?

"Sure, but, Hizuri-san, why would you buy something you don't know how to use?"

"My mother asked me to…" he mumbled.

* * *

 _August, 25th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _I honestly give up, I don't understand a thing about men! I was walking on the street, when library guy walked in the opposite direction, on the same side walk, he was looking at me, smiling, so I decided to smile back, say good morning, then carry on, so imagine my surprise, when he got down on one knee, opened a small box and asked me to marry him! At first I let out a small amused laugh, not wanting to be a butthurt girl making a scene about some prank, until I noticed the completely serious expression on his face! "Is this some sort of joke" I whispered, leaning down a bit, and when he shook his head, I did the reasonable thing to do, I rejected him … maybe a little too fast…and too loud, earning the attention of some passer-bys, some looked at me like the heartless girl who broke a poor guy's heart, others looked at me like the crazy girl who rejected said gorgeous guy, others just shook their head and got back on their way, Ughh, what did I ever do to deserve this? I'm just your casual girl trying to get by…_

Kuon Hizuri fidgeted with his pen, he was frustrated thinking about his crush…well, it's a bit late to be calling her that, at first that's what she was, a mere crush, then, he found himself thinking about her in the most random times, comparing other girls he met to her, then trying to convince himself he should forget her, after all, the chances of them getting together were slim to none, they were from different worlds, had different mentalities, she was too good for him, and yet she wouldn't be accepted in his world, so why was it so hard for him, to stop thinking about her? And then it hit him, he was starting to have feelings for her, or he already did… but he figured all that out long ago.

what was making him frustrated now, was the fact that she was absolutely oblivious of him, all his advances, all the hints he'd drop, complements he'd make, flirting attempts, were fruitless, she didn't even notice, and passed them as him being a gentleman or something, he felt like an elementary school boy trying to impress his teacher.

"That's it!" he exclaimed, realizing something, if Mogami Kyoko was oblivious to the usual, subtle declarations, he just had to make it as obvious as it can get!

So there he was, kneeling, holding up a ring to her in the middle of the street, because, asking her out on a date was too mild for his taste, and it would eventually lead up to this moment sooner or later, so, ever the business man, he decided to gain time and take a risk.

"Mogami Kyoko, will you marry me?"

Her reaction, was something he had anticipated of course, she laughed, then asked him if it was a joke, he shook his head, just to receive another blow to his abused ego.

"No!" She said, looking as if he'd asked her to jump off a cliff with him, which, he did, metaphorically speaking.

"Why not?" he asked, in mock confusion, of course she'd refuse, this is Kyoko, any other girl would jump at his proposal, but, not her.

"I …" she looked at him as if he was asking her what's the result of 'one plus one' "I don't even know you!" she replied, before hurriedly getting back on her way.

He went after her, trying to keep up with her 'damn, she's fast' "Then, get to know me!" he said.

"That won't be necessary." She said, avoiding his gaze, no wonder! she must be thinking the man's crazy!

"Why not? Do you dislike me?" he asked, doing a very realistic impression of a lost puppy.

"No, I… I just think this is aimless."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" she stopped walking, turning to look at him, with a hesitant expression "I believe that discrimination in relationships is despicable, however, I'm very aware of the fact that society is not ideal, and is in fact very discriminating, the idea of someone like you being with someone like me is taboo, and socially inacceptable, we're from totally different worlds!" she sighed "I will be looked at as a shameless opportunist and you, a foolish, naïve, unreasonable man."

He blinked one time, then two times, her argument was quite solid, he already knew what she just said, but he was Kuon Hizuri, and he'll be damned before being told what he can and can't do by some social standards "So, you're saying, that if I weren't …from a diff-"

"Rich. You can say it Hizuri-san, it's not a curse word." She said, impatiently

"That if I weren't rich, you'd give me a chance?"

"Hypothetically speaking, Yes." She said, expecting him to say he understood her, and be done with this awkward situation already.

"I see… well, brace yourself Kyoko-san, I'm gonna sweep you off your feet!" he said, with a boyish grin.

"Ugh!" Kyoko rolled her eyes and held up her hands in surrender, and walked away from him, the guy's beyond reasoning with.

* * *

 _September, 1st_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _Today was chaotic, I was woken up by the savage knocking on my door, I went to see who it was, and maybe give them a piece of my mind, just to meet the older version of Hizuri Kuon, I didn't even have the occasion to ask him who he was, he walked in, took off his shoes, and went inside the living room, panting, he took a deep breath to calm himself, then he turned to face me, accusing me of being a sly gold digger, and of ruining his son's future, I tried to tell him I wasn't any of that, but then someone else knocked on the door, going to see who it was, I found Hizuri Kuon himself, breathlessly leaning on my doorframe, how did they get my address again? He glanced at the floor, he must've noticed his father's shoes, because he walked in and did the same thing he did, taking off his shoes and joining him in the living room, anyway, after that we both tried to convinced Hizuri senior that I had no interest what so ever in his son, until he was actually… insulted by the fact?! What in earth is wrong with this family?!_

Hizuri Kuon, went to his father, announcing that he had no intention of inheriting anything from him, and that he would be carrying his duties as a normal employee, he would still be the CEO, but he won't be the heir of Hizuri Kuu, his father went mad, and asked him what the reason of his sudden decision is, and when he told him it was about a girl, he went berserk, asking his men to look into this, and getting the girl's background and data in half an hour, then storming out of his office to give her a piece of his mind.

So that's how they both ended up, in Mogami Kyoko's two-bedroom apartment.

"Dad, look, she has nothing to do with this, I fell in love with her on my own!"

"As if! Why would make you do that? Apart from her face there's nothing remarkable about her!" his father barked his retort.

"I know right?!" Kyoko said as Kuon shot her a confused look 'isn't she supposed to feel offended?' he thought before she spoke again "I tried explaining this to him!" the older man looked at her with a confused expression of his own for a moment, wasn't she sabotaging herself?

"But it's not because of her social sanding that I love her, it's everything else!"

"And what on earth is that?" both his father and Kyoko yelled at the same time.

"I …It's her personality, and her intellect." Kuon said, the situation was really messed up, he was now trying to convince both his father and Kyoko.

"Listen Hizuri-san, I already told you we're from different worlds, and there's no way we can be together, even if there was, I don't feel the same about you." Kyoko tried to reason.

"EXACCTLY and ….wait, what?" Kuu was looking at her as if she just said the earth was flat "What do you mean, you don't feel the same about him?" he said.

"Just that! I'm not in love with your son." she calmly explained.

"What kind of nonsense is that? What's not to love? He's handsome, successful, rich, smart!" what ? is he trying to convince her to be with his son now?

"I don't deny any of that, it's just that I don't have any feelings for him!" Kyoko was running out of patience, this was supposed to be her day off.

"Hahah… she's actually serious!" he turned to his son, before turning back to her "Woman, you're crazy, he should be the one rejecting you, not the other way around!"

A vein popped on Kyoko's temple, the stupid Father&Son duo were starting to get on her nerves.

"But dad, I couldn't reject her, I love her!"

"But she's not right for you!"

"That's why I dropped the inheritance!"

"You can't just quit being my son!"

"YOU TWO!" Kyoko finally yelled after a long moment of pinching the bridge of her nose and listening to the Baka-Hizuris "OUT! Get out! Out, out, out!" she yelled dragging them to the door "take whatever this is out of my place, and leave me alone!" she added opening the door "Oh, and if you do something like this again, I'm getting a restraining order!" she slammed the door, walked back to her bed, leaving two blond idiots staring at each other.

* * *

 _September 3rd_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _Today was my mother's death anniversary, I was feeling low, so I just went to work, then I headed to the graveyard, and spent the rest of the day by her tombstone, that is until Hizuri Kuon came, and silently sat next to me, honestly I was not in the mood to deal with him, so I just let him be, and tried to ignore him, until he spoke, saying all those things and turning me into an emotional mess, which, after that… made me feel much lighter, did I misjudge him? Not bothering to look beyond the fancy suit? too bad we have such a messed up …relationship, I could've used a friend like him…_

Kyoko was sitting by her mother's tomb stone, hugging her knees, feeling numb, thinking about her mother, what her life would've been like if she was still alive, how much she missed her, until a figure stood next to her, she looked up to find Hizuri Kuon, putting flowers by her mother's grave, then sitting next to her after draping his trench coat on her shoulders.

She just ignored him, not having the energy to say or do anything, then he spoke, his eyes still on the tomb stone "I bet she's very proud of you!" he quietly said "You know, it's alright to cry, she wouldn't be disappointed, she'd know it's because you miss her, she wouldn't think you're any less strong if you do,"

Kyoko tried to fight the tears that threatened to spill "She'd still be proud of you…" but she couldn't, honestly she was so frustrated, who did this guy think he was? There she was trying to stay strong through the day, and he comes, and shatters her resolve with a few classic words, making her cry her heart out, she didn't cry this hard since her mother's death, and somehow, she felt like letting out years of sorrow at once.

September, 4th

Dear Diary, I received chocolate and red roses today, signed from a 'secret admirer', as if he was fooling anyone! the only admirer I have is him, and it's a bit late for him to stay 'secret', so I sent them back, then he delivered them again himself, honestly that guy's the definition of 'persistent'! …Naturally, I invited him in for lunch, because that was the polite thing to do, I made it clear that it didn't mean anything! So …UGH! why do I feel like I'm not making any sense?

Author POV

When Kuon's delivery was sent back to him, he decided he's the kind of man who won't take no for an answer, he grabbed his jacket, and the returned items and headed to his destination.

"Hello!" he greeted once the door was open.

"…Hi," Kyoko sighed at the sight before her, those roses looked very familiar.

"For you."

"I already sent them back, I appreciate the gesture, but I can't accept them!"

"They're from your secret admirer!"

"Really?" she raised a brow at him.

"Yeah, that's what the card said, so I'm giving them back, I don't know why you'd send them to my office…unless you're my secret admirer!" Ohoho this guy can put up quite a show she thought, only to have him say "…but in that case my name is spelle N, no O."

"You know, being a librarian, I'm very knowledgeable when it comes to cursive writing, what's on that card is identical to the way you write your name in the register of the library!" she finished crossing her arms.

He blinked for a moment"Okay, busted!" he raised his eyebrows "But still, I insist!"

"Hizuri-san, I-"

"Please?"

"Ugh…" Kyoko felt trapped 'that isn't fair! Grown men aren't supposed to use that expression, those lost puppy eyes should be banned!' she thought.

"Hmm?"

"Fine!" she gave in, and took the roses and chocolate from his arms

"Alright! Have a great day!" he said as he quickly turned on his heel, not waiting for her to change her mind.

"Hizuri-san!" she called, making him turn towards her "Would you like to come in and … have lunch?" she said, not very enthusiastically "It's the least I can do , to pay you back after receiving these after all…"

"I'd love to!" he said, flashing his best smile.

* * *

 _September 27th_

 _Dear Diary, I have a confession to make, I've been getting closer to the library guy lately, I shouldn't have invited him to lunch that one time, after that I realized we got along well, too well, he's been nothing but a gentleman, he's also very pleasant to speak with, funny, and … quite charming, but what's worse is, I find myself enjoying his company, even if I start up by telling myself I shouldn't, I always end up having a good time with him! What's happening to me? This is wrong!_

* * *

 _October 14th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _Guess we're friends now...whatever, it's alright as long as I keep my distance, nothing will happen, we'll just be friends…_

* * *

 _October 26th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _This is bad, this is really bad! Today I experienced a new feeling, I…I… I was jealous! Me! And, of whom? A beautiful rich young lady, I felt jealousy when I should've only felt envy towards her, and why? Because of him! It's his fault! Why was I jealous anyway? We were just hanging around, and she spotted him, called out to him, and then started flirting with him, it was clear they knew each other because he didn't directly reject her, so why was I jealous? This has got to stop! I can't be like this!_

* * *

 _November, 10th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _Guess it can't be helped, I developed very complicated 'emotions' towards that man, I knew I shouldn't have but I did, it wasn't intentional, but that's alright, because I will never admit to having them out loud! That's it! It will be like nothing changed, and I will take these feelings with me to the grave!_

* * *

 _December, 3rd_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _It snowed tonight, it was beautiful, and it felt like a dream, especially with the familiar figure standing outside my window … why was he standing there again? Oh, yeah, he wanted to have a snow ball fight! For someone as busy as he is, he sure has a lot of time to waste!_

Kuoko stood by her bedroom window, holding a steaming cup of vanilla flavored tea, she fondly looked at the falling snow flakes, before her vision focused on the blond man clad in a gray coat waving at her.

"Kuon-san? Why are you here ?" she said after opening her window.

"I'm challenging you to a snow ball fight!" he said "come out!"

"I…we're supposed to be adults!"

"You're argument's invalid! Or are you afraid to lose?" he said bending down

"That won't work with me! I'm not a child!" she said.

"How about this then?" he said throwing a snowball at her, half the snowball hitting her arm while the other half ended in her tea mug, turning the warm beverage into iced tea, she looked at him as if he'd just murder the entire human race, there are two things sacred for a librarian: Books and Tea, nobody misses with her tea! this was getting personal.

She put down her mug, and the next thing she knew she was throwing snow balls at Hizuri Kuon, who hid behind a tree in her backyard.

After that they had dinner together.

"So how did I end up cooking for you, when you're the one who lost?" she asked, stabbing her fork into a piece of asparagus.

"Well, you said that you didn't want me to roast pickles instead of asparagus, so…"

"right…"

* * *

 _December, 25th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _He proposed again, on my birthday! I feel like a hypocrite, because even though I said all those things, and tried to convince myself with all my might, I couldn't find it in me to reject his offer again, because this time, he was being serious, this time, I felt differently, and his eyes looked at me differently, I said 'yes' in the lowest of voices, hoping he wouldn't hear me, but he did, and he thanked me, what for, I have no idea! I had a condition though…_

After the proposal, and the happiness, Kyoko spoke seriously.

"I have a condition though…"

"Anything for you, love" he said, Kyoko blushed slightly at being called that, before continuing.

"We'll keep it a secret." She calmly said, bracing herself for whatever was coming her way.

Kuon's face went blank for a moment, before it turned confused "Why?"

"As I said before, this relationship will make all hell break lose, and even though I don't have much to lose, you do!"

"Kyoko, come on, I already refused the inheritance."

"I don't want you to, just because I don't want your money doesn't mean that you have to reject it, or reject who you are, you'll always be Hizuri Kuon, and I'll always be me, so if we're doing this, no one else can know, it'll be just the two of us."

"You're trying to protect me aren't you?" he asked.

"I'm trying to protect the both of us."

"Alright then, even though I couldn't wait to announce it, I guess I can grant your one request."

* * *

 _December, 26th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _I've just passed my acceptance ritual, what's that you might ask? Well, let me try from the start, I was home, making lunch, when someone rang my doorbell, I went to open the door to be greeted by a pair of familiar green eyes…_

Kyoko opened the door to find Hizuri Kuu looking at her.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" he asked "some future daughter in law, Tch!"

"How did you-"

"What kind of father would I be if I didn't know my son was engaged?" he said before a hand smacked the back of his head.

"Stop bullying my daughter Kuu!" came the voice of a woman, she stepped in Kyoko's door frame, and hugged her "You're so beautiful" she said.

"So, you came around eventually?" Kuu said with a smirk, they were now seated in her living room "Of course you did, everyone falls for my boy sooner or later, though, you lasted longer than I expected I'll give you that!"

"Oh, shut up Kuu!" Julie snorted "Your son fell for her way before she did!... so, tell me sweetheart when are we having the wedding ceremony?"

"Didn't Kuon-san tell you? We're keeping this marriage a secret." She said still flabbergasted by their presence.

"You're what?" Kuu yelled.

"Why would you do that?" Julie asked teary eyes and all.

"Because of who we are, Kuon-san and the Hizuri group reputation would be tainted if he was known to be associated with someone like me.

'Spoke like a true business man, this girl' Kuu thought as he crossed his arms.

"But sweetheart that's nonsense!" Julie yelled, before her expression changed dramatically "You have to have a wedding, do it at least for me, I only have three weeks left to live."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, may I ask what is it that you're suffering from?" Kyoko asked suspiciously.

"…Pneumoningitis." Julie said, looking sad.

"Mrs. Hizuri that's not a real disease." Kyoko said narrowing her eyes. (A/N: I hope it's not, I just made it up XD)

"Pfft…" Kuu failed at suppressing his laughter 'This girl's got some nerve, calling out Julie's bluff like that'

"Still! you can't 'not have anything'!" Julie whined.

Kyoko sighed 'This family's a handful' she thought "I suppose we can have a small party with just close people" she said.

"Great!" Julie exclaimed capturing Kyoko in a bone crushing hug.

"Alright, now, you must know, that you won't be fully accepted in this family unless I approve of you right?" Kuu said.

Kyoko wanted to say that she wasn't really seeking his approval, since that was the aim of keeping her marriage a secret, but then she thought better of it, she'll at least hear Kuu out for Kuon's sake, so she nodded.

"Prove your determination, girl!" he said, and when she furrowed her brows in a silent question he answered her "Feed me!"

A couple of hours later, Kuu was lazily sitting on her couch, his belly had doubled in size, and his shirt was tucked out of his pants.

"I never thought that someone would ever succeed at making Kuu feel…full!" Julie said, staring at her husband in shock.

"Kyoko, you're in!" Kuu said, drinking the digestive medicine that Kyoko brought him.

'A real handful' Kyoko smiled, shaking her head.

* * *

 _January, 30th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _It's been a month since we've been married, I still think we rushed things quite a bit, oh, well, as long as things are going well, Kuon is still Kuon … amongst other things, Julie's as sweet as ever, Kuu, surprisingly, became as protective of me as he is of Kuon, we're getting along great, especially since we found out our shared passion for cooking, he's actually a very goofy man, and when I think back at how he acted towards me, I find it quite endearing, now that I understand he did it out of love for his son, Kuon's still trying to convince me to announce our marriage, the answer's still no._

* * *

 _March, 17th_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _I married a walking disaster! Hizuri Kuon's in deep shit!_

There was a spring welcoming party in town, and everyone was invited, the ball was held in the library, it was very nice, Kyoko and Kuon decided to go separately, both of them looked quite gorgeous, exchanging tender glances through the crowd, until Kyoko was approached by too many men in Kuon's opinion, so he asked her to have a word with him.

They were in the top part of the library, the ball was held in the lower part, the balcony of the library only had the musicians.

"You have to dance with only me for the rest of the evening!" he stated, crossing his arms.

"That's practically announcing we're together!" she retorted.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Just about everything! Why do you want to do that all of the sudden anyway?"

"Because, every single man in here is staring at you!" they were now shouting, and if not for the loud music, their voices would've been heard across town.

"And why's that such a big problem?!"

"Because you're my wife!" across town indeed! … just before Kuon said that, the music band stopped playing, and everyone went silent, conveniently enough.

Kuon swallowed, Kyoko closed her eyes, pursing her lips 'He's so dead!' and everyone else gasped.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm sure most of you think this is very messy and incomplete, but that's what's sweet about a Diary style fic, you get to imagine everything that happened in between according to your taste, I couldn't make it any longer, or else it wouldn't be a oneshot anymore.**

 **Honestly, I don't know how I feel about this chapter XD what about you? let me know!**

 **PS: I will be writing about all of your requests so, bear with me, Alright?**

 **Kris:** lmao, yup that's the one, when I read your request for the first time, that fanfic popped in my head, I didn't want to write anything similar because it felt like copying it, but then I thought maybe I can write something different, and I challenged myself to do so, and … that's how this chapter was born XD I want a detailed report of your thought on it, even if they're negative, what you liked, what you disliked, what you expected vs. what you got, what disappointed you, tell me everything! hit me!

 **Guest1:** Awww you're so cute! *Virtual hug* thank you so much for encouraging me, I do feel insecure of my … inability to write romance XD but I hope you guys would still stick with me :D thank you for reading and reviewing!

 **Krimson :** Lol, you'll find out when I publish the fill ins, a guest asked me to write something for when Kyoko was 15 to 25 and I already have it ready! I'll be publishing it soon! Thanks for the review!

 **Guest2 (who reviewed on chapter 1):** I'm glad you liked 'Sniper' I actually have a …sort-of-a-prequel to it, if you guys wanna read it, let me know, it's not really good in my opinion though :p anyway, thanks for your review!

 **Everyone: Thank you for reading my fanfic and patiently waiting for me!**


	14. Ch14: Kyoko-chan! (sequel?)

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi guys! This chapter is dedicated to the guest who requested fill-ins from age 15 to 25 in they're review on the 11th chapter: ' Kyoko-chan!', and also to Krimson who asked how come they were already married by 25 (kyoko's age), so this is kind of… I'm not sure it could be called a sequel? but it's relevant to that chapter, thanks for the inspiration, I hope you'll like this, please let me know if there are any mistakes that'd be a great help!

Oh, and this is _Kyoko's POV (what's in italic, that is)_ , so she's talking about Kuon's age, not hers…

* * *

 **Ch14 : Kyoko-chan! (part 2?)**

 _At nineteen, you protected me…_

"Kyoko-chan didn't I tell you to come to me whenever someone upsets you?"

"Kuon, I already told you, I'm fifteen now, I don't get hurt so easily, It's alright if I just ignore them!"

"Kyoko-chan, they were bullying you!"

"They were just being mean, it's not like they have the guts to do anything!" she waved him off.

Kuon sighed, exasperated at her carefree attitude "If I knew you'd be like this, I would've repeated a year, make sure everyone knows you're off limit…"

"Now you're just being silly, I can defend myself just fine, you focus on your university life!" she held a thumb up, with that bright smile of hers, and he couldn't help ruffling her hair.

"Oh, and Kuon?"

"Hmm?"

"You can't just go around beating up guys who pull my hair you know?"

"What? I just pulled their ears for a little, what a bunch of crybabies…" he said, shrugging.

* * *

 _At twenty, you guided me…_

"Alright Kyoko-chan, you try now!"

"Do I use the same formula?"

"Yes, and don't forget to calculate the limits."

"Alright, but if it's an indeterminate form, you'll have to help me out…" she said, scribbling on her copybook.

"OK, I'm checking your answers with the last questions, you did pretty well, I don't think you need me here anymore…"

"Hmm? Are you trying to get rid of me, do you have a date or something?" she asked, lightly tapping her pen against her temple, thinking about the next step to solve the question.

"Yeah, you know how all the girls in my Uni are all over me…"

She snorted "I also know you reject them all, since you're always hanging out with me on your free time."

There goes his attempt to make her jealous "Just solve the question." He said, pinching her cheek.

* * *

 _At twenty one, you relied on me…_

"So, I'm supposed to crack the shell first?" he said, staring down at the charcoal colored sphere sitting on the pan.

"Duh!" she said, glaring at him "Where did you get the idea of frying an egg with the shell on anyway?"

"Well, since when we eat boiled eggs, the shell is always on, so I figured it's the same thing, just with oil…"

Kyoko shook her head in disbelief "God, you're actually serious…" she took a deep breath, trying to compose herself "Alright let me teach you how to do it properly!"

Half an hour later, the fire alarm went on, and the extinguisher was emptied on the stove.

"Kuon?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe I should just cook for you instead?"

"Yeah…I'd like that."

* * *

 _At twenty two, you encouraged me…_

"Ha ehem ehem ehem" he cleared his throat, holding the menu "I'd like one large chicken burger please!"

She rolled her eyes with a smirk "You just tried to sound snobby, didn't you?"

"Oh, will you look at that attitude, maybe I should speak to your superior, is this how staff treats the costumers?"

"Kuon!" she laughed at the way he spoke.

"Truth is, my best friend started working here today, so I'm here to check up on her!"

"Oh, is that so?" she played along, she appreciated him there, it was her first part time job, since her mother didn't allow her to work before finishing up high school, so she was a bit nervous, but him goofing around made her relax.

"Yes, she's also very cute, so please look after her for me, and I'll make sure to leave a generous tip." He winked.

"You're twenty two, and have such a bright future, you shouldn't go around bribing waitresses you know?"

"Kyoko! Don't go around announcing my age!"

"Oh, that got you back to earth!" she chuckled "You'd better finish the burger!" she said before walking away to get his order.

* * *

 _At twenty three, you chased them all away…_

"Kyoko, long time no see!" a classmate of her called out.

'What the…? Who said he can call her so casually!' Kuon thought as he watched the exchange from a bench, he was waiting for her, they always stayed together since she got in his Uni.

"Oh, hello Haruki-san!" she smiled at him. **(A/N: no, that's wasn't misspelled, I don't mean Hikaru from the manga! I love him too much for this!)**

'Arghh, Kyoko don't smile like that around guys!'

"Did you change something about your hair?" Haruki said as he reached for a strand of Kyoko's black tresses.

'Lover boy's getting too comfortable!'

"Ah…no." she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and out of Haruki's reach.

'That's my girl!'

"So, what are you doing tonight?"

'Time to send him flying' Kuon thought getting up.

"Umm…" Kyoko thought of a nice way to reject the young man.

"Hey Kyoko!" Kuon said, draping an arm over her shoulder "What's taking you so long?"

'This should be enough'

"Oh, Kuon! Sorry, did you wait long?"

"Kinda…but don't worry about it, who's your friend?"

"Ah, this is Haruki-san, my classmate, Haruki san this is-"

"Hizuri-sempai! I've heard so much about you!" he said in half admiration, half disappointment.

'Then you should now I don't do this often with girls'

"Oh, really?" Kyoko looked between the two men.

"Yeah, he's kinda famous in here…oh, would you look at the time, I got to go, my lecture will start soon! Bye Kyoko, it was nice meeting you sempai!"

'And off he goes…' Kuon thought watching his retreating figure.

"Did you have lunch yet?" Kyoko asked, casually taking his arm off her shoulder.

'Ouch'

"Nope, I was waiting for you!"

"Of course you were!" she rolled her eyes "let's go!"

"What? I wasn't trying to avoid it, we always eat together!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say!"

* * *

 _At twenty four, you shared your pain…_

Kuon locked himself up in his room after the funeral, Rick was like a big brother to him, he was taken away just like that in a car accident, Kyoko ran up the stairs still clad in a black dress, his parents were worried and when she came right after he slammed his door they were relieved, Kyoko-chan can always make it better.

"Kuon! Kuon it's me, open up!" she said, knocking on the door "Come on Kuon, please?"

"Kyoko go away, I need to stay alone right now!"

"Bullshit! You open this door or I'll have uncle Kuu break it!"

"Just go! Please!" he said.

"Kuon don't do this to me…please don't lock me out!" she said, softly, and then his bedroom door was open, she got inside as he went back to his bed.

Four hours later, they were sitting on the carpet leaning on the bedside, red swollen eyes, runny noses and all, Rick was as much of a big brother to Kyoko as he was to Kuon.

"I bet Ricky thinks we're so pathetic!" he said.

"Yeah, he would've smacked us hard on the head!"

Kuon chuckled "Like that time when we…"

"Broke the neighbors' window" they said together.

"With his soccer ball!" Kyoko added.

"He was pissed!" Kuon shook his head, at the sweet memory.

"God, we look awful!" Kyoko stated as she held up her phone, who reflected them through the frontal camera.

"You look like a panda now Kyoko-chan!" Kuon chuckled at her.

"That sounds like something Rick would say…" she grinned "Surprise selfie!"

* * *

 _At twenty five, you confessed_

"Hey Kyoko-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't like being best friends anymore…"

She raised a brow at him, he could hear her think 'finish that sentence if you dare' he inwardly chuckled "What do you want to be then, worst enemies?"

He smirked 'typical Kyoko' "No, I want …" this was harder than he thought, maybe he should try a different approach "Do you know that the most successful marriages are the ones where spouses are best friends?" he asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"That was the 'smoothest' confession ever." She said, sarcastically of course, as she chuckled.

"Does that mean you agree with the statistic?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" she giggled some more, this time he laughed along.

 **(A/N: yeah, yeah, this was a lame confession I know!)**

* * *

 _At twenty six, you fought with me…_

"Why are you so … so …Ugh!" she yelled.

"So what? So protective? So jealous? So possessive?" he yelled back "Yeah, you know what? I'm all that, bite me!"

"Fine!" she shouted.

"OUCH!" he screamed rubbing his arm "I can't believe you actually bit me!"

"You challenged me! And … you know what? I actually feel better now!"

"Oh, so now you're listening to me? How about when I told you to stay away from that freak!"

"He's a friend!"

"He's an ex-classmate, and a stalker that's what he is!"

"For the last time, Haruki-san's not interested in me!"

"Oh, Kyoko you're so dense!"

"What did you say?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

"It's the truth, you've always been oblivious to boys' advances towards you, ever since we were kids!"

"Oh, well, since I'm so dense, find yourself someone smarter, then!" she said storming out.

 _…And made up with me…_

Kyoko lay on the grass in her backyard, soaking up the sunshine, when a tall figure shaded the sun, she opened her eyes to find Kuon, extending half a popsicle to her, and sucking on the other half, that's how he used to say sorry whenever they fought ever since they were kids.

Kyoko inwardly smiled, some things never change "Sit down, you're blocking my sunshine." She said, taking the frozen treat as he lay next to her.

* * *

 _At twenty seven, you proposed…_

"Alright, so I'm gonna walk around the table, kneel down and ask her to marry me, I'll just say, Kyoko will you marry me! Easy!" he told her mother.

"Then why do you look so nervous Kuon-kun?" the older woman asked, they were waiting for Kyoko to come down, she was getting ready to go out to dinner with Kuon.

"Because aunt Saena, this is Kyoko! what if I mess up?!"

"Relax Boy, this _is_ Kyoko, you've been around her since she was born, If you mess up she'll just laugh it out…" she sighed "beside, what's so hard about proposing to her anyway, you just say Kyoko will you marry me, and it's done!"

"Yeah, right, Kyoko will you marry me!" he repeated, enthusiastically.

"What?" Kyoko yelled dropping her purse, wide eyed.

"Damn!" this wasn't how it was supposed to happen.

"Language!" Saena warned rolling her eyes 'clumsy children!' she thought, walking out of the living room.

* * *

 _At twenty eight, you gave me your name…_

"Alright! Mr and Mrs. Hizuri, get out of here!" said Kuu as he pushed them out of the party.

And as they drove off, you could read 'Just hitched' on the back of the car…

 **(A/N: that's all I could come up with, sorry! T_T)**

* * *

 _At twenty nine, you gave me life…_

"He's beautiful!" he said.

"Isn't he?" Kyoko looked fondly at their little boy.

"Just like you!"

"Like us!"

"Richard Kuu Hizuri!"

"Ricky would've loved him!" she said.

"He would have!"

* * *

 **A/N: alright! So that's it! Let me know what you thought! I really struggled for the confession and proposal and wedding part, I'm LoveMe section personified lmao XD**

 **Oh, by the way, I'd like to say that from now on I'll be posting the chapters I have already finished (yup, the ones I wrote while I should have been studying xD), in the meantime I'll be writing up what everyone requested, so, if you don't find your request up yet, be patient, I didn't forget about it, It'll just a little longer to be up! And I'll be posting the requests based on when they were requested, prioritizing the ones in the preceding to the most recent reviews, it's only fair that way! ^_^**

 **Kris:** OMG, I'm so glad! I wasn't trying to fake modesty or anything, I'm litterally never happy with what I write, and with this chapter, it felt like I've starayed from what your request was about, but I'm really happy you liked it all the same! thank you for your support and for always reviewing it means the world to me!

 **Ketria:** Oh, wow, I'm glad you liked the setting of Kyoko's persona in this AU! and I'm very happy to hear you'd like to read the prequel to sniper! and regarding your request I'd be happy to do it, it's seems very interesting and I'm excited to start working on it, just be patient please, it might take some time before I have it ready! thanks for your sweet review!

 **Lennie:** Awww, I can't believe you liked that one the most *blushing* I'm glad! and for the sequel, I will be writing one in the days to come, BlackRope2 suggested it and gave me some pretty awesome ideas, so please look forward to it! thanks for your review!

 **Guest:** I'm so happy! I'm glad you do, honestly you guys make my day, and reading your reviews makes me burst with happiness :D thanks for encouraging me!

 **Everyone: thanks a lot for reading this, adding it to your favorite and alert lists, and reviewing, (as well as all my other fics) it means a lot, and I hope you'll still enjoy the rest!**


	15. Ch15: You're all I see

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello, it's been a while since I used Ren, I've been binge writing about kuon XD well, I'm gonna go back to Ren for this chapter, so, enjoy! Let me know if there are any mistakes please!

PS: I understand that this topic is sensitive, so I would like to apologize for any offense, if taken, please know it was unintentional.

* * *

 **Ch15: You're all I see**

Tsuruga Ren was a private nurse, his job consisted on going to people's houses and taking care of them, health wise. He was standing by the door of a big house, this is where he was going to work from now on, he rang the bell, and a voice told him to come inside while they buzzed him in.

Once inside, he was ushered to the living room where he was greeted by a young lady sitting on the L shaped couch, in her early twenties, she had long black hair held in a high pony tail, beautiful golden eyes, she wore a white sleeveless blouse with a grey short sleeved cardigan and a black skirt that stopped at her knees.

"Hello, please have a seat!" she said in a shivering voice, Ren thought she tried to sound cheerful or polite he couldn't tell for sure.

"Hi, I'm the aid you hired, my name's Tsuruga Ren."

"Nice to meet you Tsuruga-san, I'm Mogami Kyoko." Ren noticed that even though she was smiling, she didn't make eye contact with him, her eyes were unfocused and somewhat …dim? Using that adjective seemed out of place, how can such a beautiful fiery color be dim? That's why he had to make sure.

"So, who will I be nursing Mogami-san?" he asked, in his best professional voice.

"Well, me, and your job won't be nursing, but teaching!" Ren furrowed his brows in confusion.

She chuckled, surprising him with what she said next "Don't make that face Tsuruga-san!" this time his eyes widened "No, no, your first impression was correct, I am in fact blind." She said with a smile.

"So, pray tell, what will I be teaching Mogami-san?" he asked, composing himself again.

"You will be teaching me how to…" she seemed to look for an adequate word "…adapt?" she took a deep breath and continued"It's been two weeks since I lost my vision, two days since I was discharged from the hospital, I want to learn how to be independent again, I won't be relying on you to do things for me, just to teach me how to do them."

"I see…"

"If you agree to that, shall we discuss your wage?"

* * *

For his time in the Mogami household, Ren was told a few things, he was going to be a live-in …'teacher', Mogami Kyoko's parents died in the car accident where she lost her eyesight, she lived alone with the staff now, who seemed to adore her, she used to be a piano teacher in the music academy her father ran, which she was supposed to run now, Ren also noted that she is very strong willed to the point of being stubborn, an optimistic person, she tried her best to act cheerful while she should be grieving, she also treated everyone around her as an equal, which he concluded, must have resulted from a proper education.

"Mogami-san, I highly advise you to use the cane!" he told her as she walked around, bumping into …everything, this was his first day at work and her third day back from the hospital.

"I don't want to rely on it, if I get used to it, it will be hard to walk on my own again!" she said, as she resumed her mind mapping of the living room.

"Still, you'll get injured if you don't, I'm pretty sure that bump will leave a nasty bruise on your ankle!"

"Bruises heal Tsuruga-san!" she said in her teacher voice, Ren struggled not to sigh.

"Alright then, at least allow me to assist you." He said, putting her hand on his arm.

"I don't want-"

"Just while you learn your way around again, a lot of bruises will take too much time to heal." he interrupted her protest.

"Alright, just for the time being then."

"The spoon is three inches away from the edge of the table parallel to the current position of your wrist, the bowl is two inches away from the spoon, would you like me to tell you what's in your soup, or do you want to guess?" he instructed.

She smiled "Guessing seems fun!"

"Alright then, enjoy!"

He watched as she took her spoon and dipped it in the bowl "Make sure it's not too hot!" he said, and she nodded, her hand shook a little as she guided the spoon to her mouth and as she tasted the liquid, he could see recognition spread on her face.

"Chicken soup? Really?"

He chuckled "It's very nutritive!" he said.

"So is Miso soup…" she mumbled.

* * *

"The bath tub is ten feet away from the door, the shower is three feet on its left, your towels are on the first drawer of the cupboard and your clothes will be on the middle of your bed, I instructed Hina-san to stay just outside the bathroom, so if you need anything please call her, I will be in the living room if anything happens she'll call me, be careful not to slip!"

Kyoko was blushing, this was the first time she was going to bath without the help of one of the staff, and he was treating her like a kid.

"Yes, yes, don't worry!" she pushed him out.

A while later, she had finished up bathing and she was dressed and drying her hair with a towel.

"See? I told you not to worry! Everything went fine, I even cleaned the bathroom before getting out!"

"Yes, I'm very proud of you" he said, and she proudly smiled "your pajama shirt looks very cute backwards!" he added with a chuckle.

"Whatever! It's a new trend!" Kyoko tried not to blush, she really did.

"Mogami-san, it's alright to ask for help every once in a while, we all do." He said, grabbing a pajama top from a drawer "Here, if you run your fingers on the inner edge of the collar, you'll find a tag, that's where the back is supposed to be."

"It's actually kind of dumb that I missed that…" she said.

"No, I took me a while to notice that too, actually it was one of my patients who taught me this trick!"

* * *

Ren was woken up by one of the staff, they said Kyoko was crying and had locked herself up.

"Mogami-san?" he knocked "Mogami-san open up!"

It was the first time he heard her cry like that, even the staff said that she didn't cry even when she was told her parents died and that she couldn't see anymore.

"Get the spare key!"

Ren asked them to make some tea for her as he went in, she was hugging her knees and had the comforter over her had "I'm sorry" she said.

"What for?" he asked sitting next to her.

"I tried not being weak, I really tried not to cry, but it hurts so much!" she sobbed.

"I know, it's alright to cry, grieving is necessary for healing."

"I don't think I'll ever move on…"

"You won't, not completely, but that's alright, it'll hurt much less with time."

"I miss them so much, and I miss seeing the world!"

"I'm sure they miss you too, and you can still see the world through your other senses."

"you think?" she asked, her sobbing had stopped.

"I know…" he said, patting her head.

"That was my knee…" she snorted.

"Oh, sorry!" then she chuckled at him.

He took the comforter off of her face, brushing the hair that stuck to her tear wet face "There it is!" he pinched her nose.

"Hey!"

* * *

After the night of Kyoko's break down, Ren thought he should try another approach, he got the idea from when he told her she could see things through her other senses.

"So, why am I barefoot again?" she asked.

"You said you missed seeing your garden the most, so we're gonna try to see it, through other senses!"

"That sounded very...childish!" she teased.

"Bear with me!"

"Alright, what am I supposed to see through my feet?"

"You tell me! What do you feel?"

"The grass is a bit wet, and a bit … ticklish? I think an ant is climbing up my foot!" she freaked out a little to his amusement.

"Okay, that's good what else?"

"Ah, well…that's all my feet say…"

"Okay how about your nose? What do you smell?"

"Freshly mowed grass, and wet soil, of course! ... It rained last night!" she smiled enthusiastically.

"Very good what else?"

"... flowers? …is the cherry tree blooming?"

"It is! You're doing great!" he laughed and she did too, clapping her hands, she took a deep breath and a tear escaped her eye, she was still smiling though.

"What's wrong?" he asked worry written all over his face.

"I can see the garden!" she said in a whisper, what she couldn't see though, was the gentle smile that graced his face.

* * *

Ren woke up to the sound of soft classical music, he went down to find out where it came from, and the butler told him that Kyoko was in the music room, apparently, this was the first time she set foot there after the accident, so he went to see how she was doing.

She was sitting there facing the piano, eyes closed, and her fingertips playing on the keys, her face seemed in sync with every note, and she was doing much more than playing music, she was telling a story.

He leaned on the door frame, watching her play, she was in her element, and for the first time since he's met her, he found himself completely forgetting that she is blind.

"Did you like it?" she asked, once she was done.

"It was perfect! How did you know I was here?"

"I could smell your cologne…"

"I don't wear any cologne." his brow furrowed, he didn't wear any perfume or cologne because of the nature of his job.

"Well, it's something similar, a mix of alcohol and mint."

"Oh, it's the antiseptic…"

"Hmm? It smells nice, not like the one used in hospitals!"

"Yeah, that one is stronger."

"Do you wanna try?" she asked with a smile.

"Huh?"

"Come on I'll teach you!" she said, making place on the divan.

* * *

Kyoko was bound on the couch, she had twisted her ankle after missing a step, Ren made sure to give her a good scolding for not using the cane and said she was not to leave the couch until he said she could, so there she was.

"I'm bor~~~ed!" she whined twisting a strand of her hair.

He looked up from his book for a moment before resuming his reading, he was doing some research on her condition.

"Tsuruga-saaaaaan!"

"So? What am I supposed to do about that?" he said, trying to sound strict.

"You're still sulking?" she asked.

"I'm not sulking, I'm displeased."

"That's the adult term for sulking…" she said.

Noticing he wasn't going to have any reading done, he put down his book, crossed his arms and looked at her "What do you want?"

"I don't know, let's play a game or something!"

"What do you suggest?"

"Twenty questions?"

"Too corny."

"Truth or dare?"

"Not in your condition."

"For someone so young, you're a real kill joy, you know?"

"I don't remember telling you my age." He said.

"It was in your resumé, the clinic e-mailed it to me, now that I think about it, you treat me like a child while we're just four years apart!"

"I always treat you based on how you act."

"Tch!"

"…"

"…"

"How about ten questions instead?"

"So twenty's too corny but ten's okay?" she smirked.

"Guess you don't wanna play, fine by me."

"No, no, no, let's play, ten questions it is!"

"You start."

The game went on, until lunch time and then Kyoko asked to be taken to the music room, where she played on her piano and Ren sat there reading his book.

* * *

Ren was on his laptop, looking for institutions where Kyoko could learn Braille, she was wandering around the house, and came to sit next to him when she didn't find anything better to do.

"What made you choose your profession?" Kyoko asked all of a sudden, taking him aback.

"Uh… my best friend was sick when we were teenagers, I used to stay with him a lot and take care of him, and when he died, I followed this path, made me feel I was closer to him." He said.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that."

"Don't worry," he said, then he attempted to change the subject "What made you want to be a pianist?"

"It's all I ever knew, I've been playing ever since I could walk!" she said "I always used to play with my eyes closed…when I went blind, it was the only thing that didn't change, being a pianist is the only constant in my life."

"Do you want to teach again?" he wanted to know if she planned on resuming her position as a piano teacher in the academy.

"More than anything!" she smiled sadly "My turn now," he didn't know exactly when this turned into a Q&A game, but he didn't really min so he didn't stop her "how many girls have you dated?" she asked with a sly grin.

"Some nerve you got there missy!"

"Answer it!"

"None…"

"Seriously!"

"I'm very serious, between studies and part time jobs I didn't have the time to!"

"Weird, I was convinced you're a ladies' man..."

"What made you think that?"

"Well… you're really tall and well built, and you have a deep voice, I don't know about your face but …you get the picture, those are traits of men who would … date a lot…" by the time she finished blabbering she was blushing, that was the most awkward thing she said to him.

"Why, I'm flattered!" he chuckled "And yes, for the record, my mother always say I'm very handsome." This made Kyoko burst out laughing which made him laugh as well.

"That was priceless!" she said giggling some more.

"How about you, how many guys did you date?" he asked.

"Try a more original question!"

"I answered so you have to as well!"

"…None…" she said in low mumble.

"What was that?"

"None!"

The little bonding session went well, and by the end of it, both of them had more information about the other… one might even say dangerous information.

* * *

After three months of living together, it was time for Ren to leave, Kyoko was doing a great job on her own, and his work was done.

She was a very quick learner, and he couldn't be more proud of her, this was good bye and he wanted to give her a parting gift.

"Alright Kyoko, this is a little something for you before I leave!"

"Just go, I don't want it!" she said, holding her tears, she grew more attached to him than she planned to, and even though he said they'd still be friends and that he'd visit her, she was still upset.

"Come on Kyoko-chan, we'll still hang out together, stop sulking!"

Her answer was a pout and a sniffle.

"Open your arms!" he said, as he put a little fur ball in them.

"A puppy?!" Kyoko shrieked.

"Yes, his name is Corn."

"Pfft, what kind of name is that?" she laughed, caressing him.

"It's because he has golden fur, so …" he cleared his throat "anyway, Corn is a trained dog, since you're too stubborn to use your cane, make sure to have him around when you plan to move around too much."

"Hello, corn! Who's a good puppy!" she was ecstatic, rubbing his ears and kissing his nose.

"Take care of him for me! See you around Kyoko-chan!" Ren said with a huge smile.

But just as he turned to leave, Kyoko held onto his shirt, muttering in the lowest of whispers "I don't want you to leave…"

Of course it had much more meaning than her not wanting to part with a friend, but in her condition she wasn't confident enough to confess her feelings, she didn't want to burden him, and she convinced herself he deserved better.

And even though he felt the same about her, her wealth and his professionalism kept him silent, but her taking the first step, made everything different, so ever slowly, he turned and said in a very soft voice "Then come with me…"

* * *

 **A/N: Rushed ending? I was actually planning on stopping when Kyoko offered to teach him how to play the piano, so it's an actual miracle that I got this far, again, sorry for the stiffness of the romantic scenes (or lack thereof :p) XD anyway, let me know what you thought please!**

 **Kris:** Anytime sweetie! I'm glad you liked it, thanks a lot for the review!

 **Krimson:** Lol, yeah, I do like the way you described how you wanted the confession to be like, but I'm not sure if I could've figured it out, and the Kyoko I had in mind wouldn't tell him to 'go get a girlfriend' lmao because she's in love with him too xD Aww, it's a pitty you forgot your password, you could've messaged me, I love talking with people here! Thanks for the review!

 **Everyone: thanks a lot for reading and reviewing, and adding to lists, I finished the last of my exams today, and I want to thank you guys for your patience and support, it means a lot to me!**


	16. Ch16: Scoop!

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi guys! This is an AU where Kyoko's a journalist /reporter/ Talk show host and Ren's …well, Ren. Please let me know if there are any mistakes!

* * *

 **Ch16: Scoop!**

"That was a preview of 'stone eyes' make sure not to miss the first airing this Sunday! Thank you for your presence Tsuruga-san, see you next Tuesday everyone!" Kyoko waved to the camera and they were both up shaking hands with the audience as the credits rolled down.

"Good job everyone!" Kyoko bowed to the crew and then turned to bow to Ren "Good job today!"

He bowed as well "Thank you for taking care of me."

"Tsuruga-san, speaking of taking care of you, I'd like to remind you of your promise to announce any revelations, or juicy scoops on my show, after all, you've been associated with us the longest since your debut!" she was giving him a mischievous grin, to which he just laughed.

"Yes, yes, Mogami-san, you'll be the first one to grill me on air…"

"Now, that's mean, when did I ever do something like that, I've always respected your wishes…" she mumbled that last sentence.

"That's right, I was just joking, how about you forgive me over dinner?"

"Bribing a journalist aren't we?" she flicked her tongue "Tsk, we'll share the bill."

Ren nodded his head, he'll find a way around it when it's time to pay, it wasn't the first time she insisted on paying half the bill, over the years, they grew quite close, their relationship was beyond professional, one might dare to call them friends if they stop addressing each other so formally.

 _Ren first met Kyoko when he was modeling on location, they were both new in the industry, she was supposed to be working on some story about the 'top five must-go-to beaches' in Japan, and he was modeling for a swimsuit photo shoot, on his break he was struggling to get the right vibe the photographer wanted, and while he was deep in thought he had walked behind a big rock, not noticing the little ball crouching there, he sighed and slumped down, sitting on the sand and leaning on the rock._

 _"Waah!" she half yelled "you scared me there!" he looked at her with wide eyes, then turned away when his surprise died down._

 _"What's with you?" she asked, taking a picture of a small crab making its way across the sand._

 _At the sound of the shutter, Ren turned to ask her why she was taking pictures of him, only to notice she wasn't even looking at him, he blushed then cleared his throat before asking "What are you doing anyway?"_

 _"I'm supposed to take pictures of the beach, but here I am getting distracted with crabs and sea stars…" she took one more picture of the little pond where the light reflected on some seaweed and a tiny orange colored sea star, before turning to fully face him "I'm a reporter…supposedly…"_

 _In that moment, her eyes seemed to trap the sun rays within their golden colored irises, making him freak out for half a second, before he decided not saying anything will just make him look dumb "I'm "Tsuruga Ren, I'm a-"_

 _"Model, and aspiring actor, I know, I've been following the news of young talents… despite what my boss says, I'm more of a show biz kind of reporter, but he disagrees … he'll come around when I get my first big story." She turned to the sea, snapping a few pictures._

 _'young talents? I'm pretty sure she's younger than me…' Ren thought._

 _"So what's making you sigh so deep, Mr. Model?" she asked, sitting next to him and letting her camera hang loose on her neck "Don't worry, I won't be making it my story-ticket to show biz!" she laughed before adding "Oh, I'm Mogami Kyoko by the way!"_

 _"Well, Mogami-san, it doesn't really matter, I'm sure you won't understand anyway…"_

 _"Try me!" she said "Oh, could it be, you're not responding like the photographer wants you to?"_

 _He jerked his head to shoot her a flabbergasted look "How did you know that?"_

 _"Well, from my humble experience, what upsets Actors and Models the most, are NGs, usually…"_

 _He sighed deeply rubbing his neck "I don't know what he wants, I tried every way I could think of to portray 'excitement to jump in the water', whatever the hell that means…"_

 _"Well, maybe it's not about portraying it the way you think is best, maybe you should try figuring out what his idea of excitement is!" she said._

 _That got his attention "What do you mean?"_

 _"Well, contrarily to acting, in which you're supposed to show your character's emotions through your own, modeling is usually about showing the image that the brand wants, it's kind of like what I'm doing now, taking pictures of beaches to please my editor while I feel like I should be interviewing you instead…"_

 _"So what you're saying is, I should be trying to figure out what the photographer thinks is the proper expression for excitement, not my own?"_

 _"Yeah!" she shrugged "for instance, what kind of man is he, if he's the bubbly kind of guy, you should show your excitement openly, if he's more composed, then you should restrain yourself from looking too eager, it's like analyzing him to give him what he wants, the brand must've chosen him for a reason, they know he can take pictures that match their vibe."_

 _"How do you know all that?" honestly Ren was a bit jealous that she knew more about this than he did, and he's the model._

 _"Part of being a good reporter, is being a good photographer…and my father was an Actor so I've been exposed to these things since I was a kid."_

 _So was he, both his parents were active in the show biz for crying out loud…but maybe, she was more perspective, since, not being directly involved in it, she got to see that world from the outside as well as from the inside._

 _'wait…' "was?" he asked her._

 _"Yes, he's retired now, enjoying some island, or who knows what…" he took a deep breath, closed her eyes and let out a happy sigh "The air here sure is nice to breathe!"_.

After that, fate had it that they met several more times again, he was the first person she interviewed and vice versa, they also got along very well, in the show biz world, their names seemed to always cross over, whenever there was a story about Tsuruga Ren, Mogami Kyoko's name was sure to be at the end of the article.

"So, still no lucky lady? Your fans are dying to know." She said, cutting into her hamburger steak.

"Hmm? My fans, or just you?" he grinned.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't, and technically I am your fan as well…"

He chuckled, then went silent for a while, a thoughtful smile gracing his face, and as if making a decision he said "How about a month from now?" eyes glinting with anticipation, he might regret this, but that's what great about gambling, the chances are almost against you, and yet, you might be pleasantly surprised.

"Hmm?" she looked up to meet his gaze "you mean…?"

"The unveiling of my 'lucky lady' as you put it, a month from now, your show."

Kyoko dropped her knife, the reporter in her was overjoyed, making her lose control of her limbs.

"Who is she?" there it was, that look that says 'tell me first, and maybe I won't spill'

He chuckled "You'll get to know when everyone else does!"

"You mean, on air?" she furrowed her brows at not getting what she wants.

"That's right!...don't give me that look now, finish your plate."

"That's my line…" she muttered, pouting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what we're about to find out in a few moments, is as exciting as finding out the whereabouts of Atlantis, just like the sunk city, this secret have been buried in the depth of Tsuruga Ren's heart, until Today!" She spoke in a low excited voice, having the audience look like a bunch of children surrounding the fire as their grandma told some legend, and Ren couldn't help but smile at her dramatic introduction for her next question.

"Tsuruga-san, this is the moment of truth, who is your special lady?" she said, eyes narrowed at him, and a smile going from ear to ear.

After a few moments of silent suspense, he smiled and said "It's you, Mogami-san."

Kyoko let out that nervous half laugh she always used when a guest said something problematic "Excuse me, what?" then she cleared her throat throwing a glance at the producer before saying "Ladies and gentlemen we'll be back after the commercial!" in a very stiff manner.

"What was THAT!" she yelled as soon as her dressing room's door was closed.

"You're the one who always insisted I make my revelations on your show, and what's better than having the lady in question present when I did." He shrugged, as if there was nothing wrong with the world.

"Wh…I can't believe you're being serious!"

"Why? Do you hate it that much?" he was being very serious right now.

"N-no, that's not it! I …" she sighed "Do you have any idea what the impact of this on both our careers will be?" when he just kept looking at her she yelled "DISASTROUS!" answering her own question.

"Why are you so freaked out, based on my manager's research, this was something the public expects, you're probably the only one this surprised."

"Wha…what research?"

"He always tracks what my fans say, and apparently we've been interacting enough for them to start assuming things," he opened the door of the dressing room, revealing a normal acting crew, weren't they supposed to be losing their mind? He gestured with his head "see?"

"How the-?"

"Kyoko, you two are back on air in two minutes, so get your story straight!" a very calm producer commanded.

Of course it was expected, those two have been close for what? Six years now? Tsuruga Ren had appeared on her show so many times, people started to think he was a regular, and their 'friendship' was the number one subject of gossip on the internet, not that anyone minded, Kyoko was very loved by the public, her talk show was always fun to watch, and she had the type of personality that made you feel you were the best of friends even through the television screen, if there was anyone the fans will forgive for stealing Japan's most wanted bachelor, it was her.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, that's it! XD I really love reporter Kyoko ^w^ let me know what your thoughts were through this chapter!**

 **Next chapter will be the prequel to 'sniper', if everything goes as planned! And after that I'll start putting up what I've written for the requests!**

 **Kris:** Hi there! My last exam was disastrous actually lmao but that's fun, what's life without a few screw ups, eh? I'm glad you loved that chapter, it was fun to write ^^ I hope you'll like this one as well! Thanks for the review, your support means the world to me!

 **Fariha:** Hello! Awww thank you so much! It's great to know you guys still like my stories regardless of their lack of the 'important emotion' as Lory puts it XD thank you for encouraging me, and for the review, it made me very happy!

 **Everyone:** thank you so much for reading, I wish this fanfiction would still be enjoyable throughout the next chapters!

 **To 'The Touma-kun Chronicles' readers:** I'm so sorry for not updating, I'm not sure what to do next and I have no inspiration for the moment T_T I hope I'll get over it soon…meanwhile if you have any requests for that fanfic please go ahead XD (yes shamelessly asking for suggestions, that's the kind of girl I am!)


	17. Ch17: Second chance(prequel to 'sniper')

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi everyone! So I said that I'll be posting a prequel to the first chapter: 'Sniper', and here it is! It deals with how Kyoko became a part of that agency and gives a bit of info on everyone. Please tell me if there are any mistakes!

* * *

 **Ch17: Second chance (prequel to 'sniper')**

Mogami Kyoko.

20.

Female.

Deceased.

.

.

.

No, in fact, she was very much alive, she even stood in her own funeral, she didn't want to see the heartbroken faces of her loved ones, but she needed to do this, she needed to put the past behind her.

* * *

"I know who you are."

She twitched 'Calm down, it's probably just a misunderstanding' she took a breath and looked up from her book "Hmm?... guess I have one of those faces!" she smiled and looked down again.

"Don't play dumb, Mogami Kyoko-san."

She hoped he didn't catch her eyes widening "Excuse me? You must have me confused with someone else."

"I was standing right next to you on your funeral, that was quite the cold face you've made, I was impressed…burying your own self like that."

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Ah, yes, that face!" he said pointing at her "I'm here to make you an offer. Join my agency."

"What nonsense are you spouting old man?"

"Takarada. Lory Takarada." He said extending his hand to her, she glanced at it, before looking back at him.

"I'm not going to shake it, and I'm not interested in your offer." She put some money on the table and got up to leave the Café.

"By the way, I think you should know that you're being followed, and no I don't mean myself." He moved his eyes to the left, towards a young man in a trench coat.

"It wouldn't be wise to give up your new identity now, would it? After all the trouble you went through."

She listened quietly, taking a few seconds and after thinking about his words, she gestured to him to walk with her.

"Who is that guy? Who sent him?" she asked, walking quickly.

"I'm afraid I can't tell."

"What's your offer?"

"As I said, join my agency."

"I already got that, I mean what does your agency do exactly?"

"The same work you used to do, but with much more data to work with, we don't keep our agents in the dark and … we don't kill innocent people."

"What do you know about the work I used to do?"

"First, you were a soldier, doing normal military work, but then after your superiors noticed the high level of your skills, both academically and physically, they decided to put you on a different field, the secret special force unit, you've been honorably discharge from the military, provided with a cover which was basically your own life prior to the military, you became an assassin, you've been told you were eliminating people who were a threat to the country but in fact, you were used to eliminate the people who strived to change the country to the better, in other words, troublesome people for those who used you, after you discovered the truth, you planned your death, which brings us to this instant."

"How do you know all this?" she pulled her gun at him, and so did he.

"I'm the head of The Agency, I know everything."

"…"

"What do you say? Join me? You'll have protection against those who target you and resources to work with, The Agency also provides a safe house."

"Why would you do that for me?"

He lowered his gun "Because you're talented."

"So basically, you want to use me."

"Yes."

"What makes you different from… them?"

"As I said, we don't kill innocent people, and we need someone like you on our side."

A few moments of silence passed, while they stood there in a back alley, she breathed deeply then she lowered her gun.

"Alright, but I'm going to observe your work first, then I'll take my decision."

"Sure!" his lips curled into a smile that sent shivers down her spine 'This old man is creepy' she thought.

* * *

"Sorry for deceiving you, Kyoko-chan!" the same young man who had been 'following her' said sheepishly rubbing his neck.

"For what it's worth, Ren didn't want to do it, I made him." The president said.

She glared at both of them before asking "Why?"

"Well, if you didn't think you were in danger, you wouldn't have been so easily convinced now, were you?"

'This old man's an idiot!' she thought "And what makes you think I won't change my mind?"

"Because when you see what we do here, you won't have any doubts left." He said.

"It's true, Kyoko-chan!" Ren said, smirking.

"Why are you calling me that?" she said with an irritated stare.

"Because it seems to annoy you." God she wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, and she had a few ideas on how.

"Don't mind him, he just likes to tease people." A man in glassed said, he had gentle features and a sweet smile.

"Ah, right, I think I should introduce everyone!" Takarada clapped his hands. And she was starting to think this was a mistake, this place looked more like a circus than an actual underground agency full of assassins.

"You already met our number one agent, Tsuruga Ren, this is Yashiro Yukihito, the girl facing the computer is Kotanami Kanae…Hmm, the Ishibashis are out on a mission, and so is Ruriko-chan…Oh, well, you'll meet them later."

"Now, why don't I show you to your room?"

* * *

"She's quite silent, isn't she?"

"What did you expect, she's a former soldier!"

"So are half of us!"

"Maybe you should talk to her!"

"Eh? Why me?"

"Because you're the cutest."

Kyoko slammed her book shut "You guys are noisy." She stood up and headed back to her room.

"What's up with the Ishibashis?" Ren asked leaning on Kanae's desk.

"They just got scolded by the new girl." She said, while typing on her keyboard, not the least bit interested in gossiping about the 'new' girl.

"Oh? She's got a bit of an attitude doesn't she?" he smirked.

"Maybe if everyone would just leave her alone…" Kanae mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Mo! Nothing if you want to gossip about her that much just go join the Ishibashis!"

"Chill there, wildcat!" Ren teased.

"Mo! Don't call me that!"

* * *

"Woops, sorry, my bad!"

"That's alright." Kyoko got back to her book, hoping the girl who accidently bumped into her would keep going down the stairs.

"I'm Ruriko by the way, you must be Kyoko."

"Yeah."

"You're not very social are you?"

A vein popped on Kyoko's temple, she was re-reading the same line for the third time.

"That's okay, it's true that at first everyone seems a bit annoying, but you'll get used to them eventually!"

This girl was annoying, and why was everyone acting like she had already joined the agency anyway? She made it pretty clear that it was just there to observe, she didn't give her okay yet.

"See you around! Kyoko-chan!"

And why the hell was everyone calling her Kyoko-chan?!

* * *

Kyoko inwardly sighed, no one seemed to leave her alone, all she wanted was some peace to read her book until it was time for her to observe their mission, but there she was being interrogated by The Agency's prodigy pretty boy "So what's the deal with you?" he said, she only raised an eyebrow at him "I mean you fake your death, you're given a chance by the boss and yet, you act like you hate it all!" he added.

"Why do you care?" she asked.

"Meh, just asking!" he shrugged.

"Nothing."

"Humm?"

"Nothing's the deal with me! There you have your answer."

"Doesn't look like nothing to me…"

Kyoko sighed "Look, I'm just tired okay? Not knowing who to trust can do that to a person."

"Oh, so that's what all this is about!" what? Was he being serious? She was used to kill innocent people, found out her life was a lie, had to fake her death, attend her funeral and walk away from everything that ever mattered to her and he treats it like some minor thing?

He must've figured out what she was thinking because he said "Well, we all didn't trust anyone at first…" he looked at Yashiro who was sitting next to Kanae, the both of them seemed to be discussing some previous mission's detail "Yashiro's parents and his wife were killed because he was a journalist trying to uncover the truth, after that he was recruited here and now he's our first source for intelligence gathering source!" then he gestured to Kanae "Kanae was kidnapped when she was a teen and taken away from her family by a human trafficking ring, she was supposed to be sold as a part of an auction, president Lory rescued her and took her in, now she's the agency's best hacker as well as an excellent strategist." He smiled and then turned to look at Hikaru, yuusei and shinichi "The Ishibashis were a part of some sick governmental experiment, that's why they all have the same last name without being related, because they classified them like lab rats, they were basically brain washed, told that they were doing what's best for their country, and then it turned out the experience was testing some new drug to enhance soldiers' skills, oh and you know what? Half said soldiers died in that experiment, and yet they managed to get away and are now some of our best assets! Flawless fighting technique and they know their guns!" he turned back to her "The point is, every one of us has a tragic story, but we've been given a second chance, and while we could be mourning our past we rather be grateful for it and live our present, maybe you should too!" he smirked and started to walk away.

"You didn't tell me your story!" she said making him turn around.

"Oh, me?...I'm just your average bad boy!" he winked and got back on his way.

'Tsk! What an annoying, arrogant, childish…' she sighed 'but he's got a point.'

* * *

After Yashiro gathered the data needed for the mission and gave them a briefing on the mission's nature and what they should be expecting, it was time for them to get on the move.

"Alright kids! This is a serious matter, you must do well in this mission, or else Kyoko-chan will not join us!"

Kyoko and Kanae rolled their eyes, while Ren let out a snort at how dramatic Lory was, the Ishibashis looked a bit worried, and Ruriko tapped her foot impatiently, this is why nobody joined The Agency willingly, of course no one would want to work under someone so eccentric.

"Okay guys, so here's the plan!" Ren started "Kanae's gonna deactivate the alarm system while Hikaru and I sneak in the factory, Shinichi and Yuusei we'll be standing guard and Ruriko will be our drive away, we'll get the sample and get out of there ASAP, while Kyoko-chan will be waiting with Ruriko and Kanae in the van to observe."

"Okay!"

"Roger!"

"Got it!"

The Ishibashis said in sync, while the girls nodded.

"Good luck kids!" Lory gave them a thumbs up.

* * *

"Okay boys, the backdoor's lock is disabled, go ahead!" Kanae said.

"Thanks Kanae!" Hikaru whispered while they entered, they were in disguise as scientist, in lab coats, although Ren stood out a bit for being so tall.

On the other hand, Yuusei and Shinichi were disguised as Guards, they stood by the backdoor, guarding the area, and standing by to back up the others in case something went wrong.

"Yuusei is everything alright on your side?" she asked.

"Yes, everything seems to be quiet for the moment."

"Good, Ruriko's on StandBy too." Kyoko sat next to Kanae facing the computer screen, she had hacked into the security camera system and they were watching Ren and Hikaru's every step, Ruriko's job seemed to be driving, Kyoko had learnt that the young woman was remarkable behind the stirring wheel, she was fast and kept her cool in hot situations, she also came to understand that even though they all had high level training in martial arts and could handle various weapons, each was assigned based on their best skill.

"Kanae! There's a guard here shall we take him out?"

"No hold up!" she hacked the Radio frequency and altered her voice, sending the guard away "You guys are good to go now, make it quick, it'll only take so long until the rest of the guards figure it out!"

"Thanks wildcat!" Ren winked to the security camera above them.

"Jerk…" she mumbled.

Kyoko was quite impressed by the level of coordination between them, it reminded her of her days at the military, these guys might not be as uptight, but they sure were as disciplined as soldiers.

"Okay, there's a bunch of bottles in here how do we know which one to get?" Hikaru asked.

"You should look for a blue liquid in a glass bottle."

"That narrows it down…there are dozens of blue liquid filled bottles!" Ren snorted.

"Read the component list, 'Polynelyne' should be written on it!"

"Damn, this'll take a while, Hikaru, I'll take the top shelf, you read the ones in that cabinet!"

"Got it!"

"There's something going on…" Kyoko said narrowing her eyes at a section of the screen, Kanae enlarged that one, it was the feed from a camera in third floor of the factory, it showed a group of security guards gathering, gesturing wildly as if having an argument and then storming out.

"Damn it! That's where I sent the guard! How did he get there so fast?! They must've figured it out!"

"Should I move the van closer to the exit?" Ruriko asked.

"No, that'll give our position away!" she said "Guys hurry up! We've been found out!"

"You've got to be kidding me! We've still got to check a lot of bottles!" Ren snarled.

"How much time do we have left?" His partner inquired.

"Approximately seven minutes."

"Damn it!"

"Guys get out of there now!"

"No! we have to get this now, they'll reinforce security now that they found out we got in." Ren argued, still looking through the bottles.

"Mo, get out, now, they'll catch you!"

"No! lock us in for the time being, trigger some alarm to stall them or something!"

"Mo! I can't, I can't alter the security code, if they know it, they'll get in!"

"Moko-san, is there an air vent system that leads to where they are?" Kyoko asked.

'Moko-san?' Kanae didn't realize she was talking to her at first then she answered "Yeah, why?"

"I'm going in, disable the lock on the back door, and guide me through the air vent."

"Mo! You won't have enough time!"

"Don't worry about it!" she said before jumping out the van.

"Boys, Kyoko's coming for back up hang in there!"

"What? How?" Ren shrieked.

"I don't know, but she seems to know what she's doing so, keep looking for a little longer."

Kyoko quickly crawled through the vent, Kanae told her which turns to take and before she knew it, she was with them in that lab.

"I'll look with you for a while, when they come in, I'll cover you so keep looking." She said, as she looked through the bottles in the cabinet with Hikaru."

"Alright!"

"Guys, three minutes, and they'll be there!" Kanae warned.

"Not yet!" Hikaru said.

"They're at the door!"

"Found it!" Ren yelled.

"Okay, let's get out of here!" Hikaru reached for the door, and right at that moment they were facing what seems like a small army of guards.

"Darn!" he said.

They were attacked by the guards, who luckily didn't seem to be taking any chances using their guns in case the lab had inflammable materials, so they relied on hand to hand combat, the boys tried to hit the men in painful spots avoiding any vital organs which was a bit difficult, by the time they finished the men who were attacking them, they turned towards Kyoko to help her out, only to find her knocking down the last of what seemed like a pile of unconscious guards.

"W-what did you do to them?" Hikaru asked, swallowing.

"What? They just fainted from the lack of oxygen." She casually informed.

"So, basically, she chocked them." Ren pat Hikaru on the shoulder.

"Yeah, but not to death." She said in her defense.

"Guys! We're here!" Shinichi yelled s he and Yuusei barged in.

"Thanks, but we're good!" Ren smiled.

"Get out of there you bunch of retards, there's a new pack coming your way!" Kanae yelled at them.

Once out of there and as they entered the van Ruriko smirked and said "Alright kids, buckle up!" and she drove off.

* * *

By the end of that mission here's what everyone learned:

 **A.** Kanae was the brain of the operation, and planning was her specialty.

 **B.** Team work was efficient.

 **C.** Kyoko prefers working in silence and she's very fast.

 **D.** Hikaru and Ren were quite the fighters.

 **E.** If Ruriko is driving, take a paper bag with you.

"Great job kids, I'm so proud of you!" Lory was in -fake- tears, but he seemed to be genuinely pleased "Kyoko, excellent job with backing them up! I take it you're officially a part of The Agency now?"

"Yeah, but, aren't you mad that I've strayed off the original plan?" she asked.

"Not at all, my child, sometimes things don't go according to the plan, and we have to improvise!"

"Ah…Now I would appreciate it if you'd tell me what was the sample we had to get for?"

"Ah, yes! You see, that blue liquid is a newly developed formula, that factory was used as a cover for a secret research department-"

"Boss, Make it short will ya?" Ren said and turned to talk to Kyoko "It's an undetectable poison some government officials were planning to use against the minister of defense."

"You're no fun Ren!" Lory pouted "Anyway here's the file of the mission, in case you want to read it, we'll anonymously deliver it with the sample to the minister tomorrow morning." He said, handing Kyoko a folder.

"Thanks." She said, and for the first time since she came, she smiled.

Everyone went silent for a moment before Ruriko spoke pinching Yuusei.

"Just now, she smiled didn't she?"

"Ouch! Yes, and why are you pinching, you should be pinching yourself!"

"That was quite the scene wasn't it?" Ren furrowed his brows "I feel like I've witnessed a rare thing!"

"Mo! You guys are making her uncomfortable!" Kanae yelled.

"Whoa, Hikaru's blushing!" Shinichi said.

Kyoko stood there flabbergasted for a moment, these guys were impossible, how can a simple smile make them react that way? "Pffft," she chuckled "You lot are a piece of work!"

* * *

 **A/N: for some reason I'm not satisfied of it, I might and that's a big 'Might' XD …ehem, I might write a second part of the prequel, I feel like I should deal with everyone's relationship after they all got comfortable with Kyoko. Anyway, let me know what you thought of it please!**

 **Guest1:** Lol, thanks you're cute, I'm sure she would want you to be a guest on her show! Thank you for the review, I appreciate the support!

 **Kris:** Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked this chapter, and it makes me so happy that you've been reading my other one shots, you're awesome, thanks a million times for the support, it means the world to me!

 **Guest2:** Hello there! I'm glad you're liking it so far, let me know what you thought of the other chapters, I hope you'll enjoy this one as well, Oh, and yes, I've finished my exams, but I'll have to pass a few make up exams XD honestly, everyone in my class does, they totally butchered us lmao thanks for the support and thanks for the review!

 **Everyone:** thanks a lot for reading guys!


	18. Ch18: Second chance (part 2)

**I don't own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi! So this is the second part of 'second chance' the prequel to sniper, it's set one month after Kyoko joined The Agency, and while the first part dealt mostly with her past experiences and her trauma, this one deals with how she became more comfortable around everyone, and how she 'loosened up', although I didn't plan it when I wrote the first part, this part was necessary or else Kyoko's transition from her initial 'distant' self in s'econd chance part 1' to the bubbly girl in 'sniper' would be unclear, I hope you guys will like this, I'm not very confident about it tbh, I'm starting to think writing a prequel ruined sniper somehow :/

Hmm, btw, I intentionally made Ren to be playful, it would be a bit hard to get Kyoko to loosen up if I kept him in character :p

I'm sorry if the first part was disappointing (In my defense, I did say it wasn't all that good XD), I hope this one is better and that it'd make up for it. Anyway, let me know if there are any mistakes please!

* * *

 **Ch18: Second chance (part 2)**

After their mission, Kyoko was assigned based on her skills and preferences, she was good at hand to hand combat, and she also mastered manipulating various weapons, but Lory saw it was best for her to be given the position of a sniper, she was patient, calm and collected and being the sort of girl who prefers working in silence, she couldn't agree more.

She also got to know everyone else a little better, and they discovered that even though she seemed cold and distant at first –Which is to be expected, since she was testing the waters- she's actually a very sweet girl… well, as sweet as someone in their line of work can get.

She had the pleasure to get closer to the Ishibashi trio, they seemed to always have something going on, one time they even got her involved in one of their pranks, for which she had to apologize and scold them for.

"Guys! You can't just yell 'grenade!' in the middle of the armory!"

"But Kyoko-chan, that was just a prank!" Yuusei defended.

"Yeah, and everyone else's already used to our pranks, so no one really took us seriously!" Shinichi backed up his friend's argument.

"What if something really happens, and they don't believe you? what would you do then ?"

"Well…then, We'll leave it up to leader here," Yuusei pated Hikaru on the back.

"Yup, everyone knows he's the sensible one."

"Anyway," Hikaru glared at his two friends "We're sorry, Kyoko-chan!" he bowed taking them down with him.

"Ah, you guys, Yashiro-san was looking for you!" Ruriko yelled through the corridor, Kyoko raised an eyebrow before yelling back.

"Even me?"

"Yeah, you should go now, it seemed important!"

She and the trio got on their way, as they walked towards Yashiro's office, she couldn't help but think he was going to scold them for their prank earlier, and let out a frustrated sigh.

Once there, Yashiro greeted them, and asked them to sit down he informed them about their mission, which required them to protect an important activist at the national security conference, apparently he received threats and warnings that he was going to be attacked, and their job was to capture the attackers.

* * *

The mission went well, even though one of the attackers had to be taken down, the other two were successfully captured and delivered to the authorities.

The Ishibashis decided to celebrate and invited Kyoko to join them, she politely refused and went back to HQ, where she met Kanae.

"You look horrible." She said.

"Thank you, Moko-san." She smiled.

"Back from a mission?"

"Yeah…I hate close range operations!" she sighed, slumping on the couch.

"Why don't you go home? Relax or something."

"No… I'll just be bored to death, and I don't wanna go to sleep early." Kyoko said before taking a good look at Kanae who weren't glued to her computer screen as usual "Hmm? Are you going home now Moko-san?" she asked.

"No, I've got some work to do, I was just stretching my legs…How about the shooting range?"

"Shooting range?"

"Yeah, there's one in the floor beneath us, sometimes I go there when I'm bored, or when I need to blow off some steam."

"Oh… why not!" Kyoko shrugged and got up to head there.

* * *

Kyoko put down her gun, and took off her ear muffs and shooting glasses, just to hear the clapping of hands, turning around she saw Ren standing there with his annoying smirk on his face.

"Nicely done!" he said, gesturing at the target sheets.

"Thanks, why are you here?"

"Just to kill some time, I bet I'll break your record." He said.

"I'm sure you will, I'm more comfortable with a rifle anyway…" she said, nonchalantly.

"Sure, I can handle that!"

Kyoko looked at him with a grin "What? You're saying that you'll beat me shooting off a sniper's rifle?"

"Yup!"

"You're on!"

* * *

In the external range, Kyoko and Ren lie on their stomachs, each holding a rifle, looking through the scope they could see the targets placed quite a distance away from them.

"Ready?"

"Whenever you are." Kyoko said.

They both looked through their scope, measuring the wind, and making sure their rifles were stable, it didn't take them long to fire their shots.

Looking through binoculars to check the results, Ren whistled "There's no other way of putting it … I did great!"

Kyoko smirked, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she had gotten used to him by now.

"But, you totally kicked my ass!" he said, lowering the binoculars so that he could look at her "Right on the bull's eye! I'm impressed…embarrassed, but impressed."

She let out a small chuckle "Why, thank you."

"How did you make it so accurate?" he asked.

"Well, I noticed you didn't keep a steady pressure on the trigger after the rifle went off, that was your mistake, when you do that, the rifle jerks slightly, and even though your aim was initially on point, your bullet went slightly off the target." She explained. (A/N: all credit goes to the cool guy on youtube, I know nothing!)

"Huh! So you're saying, if I weren't too impatient, I would've won?"

"It would've been a tie." she deadpanned.

He smirked "let's go back inside sniper girl, I'm having my comeback with a good old glock."

"You're a bit of a sore loser aren't you?" she teased.

"I didn't lose yet, we're having another match!"

*Fifteen minutes later*

"It's a tie." Ren said, staring at both their target sheets "You lied." He turned to look at her.

"I did not! I just said I was more comfortable with a rifle!"

"Sure you did!" he sighed "Well come on, I'll have to buy you a drink or something to celebrate your victory!" he recovered, the carefree smirk back on his face.

* * *

One week after that, Kyoko was walking to the president's office, she was told he wanted to speak to her, she hadn't seen Kanae or Ren that day, even though they did cross path through the week, he would tease her, she would retort sometimes, and ignore him most of the time, she also came to notice how awkward Kanae acted around Yashiro, but she left it at that, not bothering to think about it more than needed.

At the president's office, she sat there with a grimace, she was told she had to go on an undercover mission, and truth be told, she wasn't very fond of those, they always required some sort of flirting, and interacting with the target, which wasn't her forte.

"Relax Kyoko-chan, It's not you who's going undercover, you're just taking dawn the target while your partner baits him!" Lory said.

"Oh!"

"Now listen well, this mission is very important, I'm counting on you!" he said, and for a moment she thought he was acting serious, until he opened his mouth again "But I'm not worried about anything, you're so good at what you do, this mission is already accomplished, after all…" she stopped listening when he started praising her shooting skills, this man will never change.

* * *

Kyoko disassembled her rifle, waiting to be called by Yashiro so that he would inform her about the mission, she thought her time would better be used cleaning her weapons, thinking of Yashiro, her mind want back to a certain moment that day, going back from the president office, she saw Kanae and Yashiro speaking in the corridor, she settled on the couch which was conveniently facing them, and observed their interaction.

 _"Those two need to make it happen!" she heard a voice say, she tuned to see the owner of that voice settling on the couch's armrest, he was a tall man, with dark hair, quite handsome, he seemed slightly older than Ren._

 _"And you are?" she said, she didn't really like him talking about Kanae like that._

 _"Kijima Hidehito, at your service pretty lady!" he winked._

 _'Ugh!' Kyoko thought, a playboy, just the type of guy she disliked, she turned to look at Kanae and Yashiro again._

 _"You know, they're obviously in love but won't admit it." He said, Kyoko looked up at him, she wasn't really interested in talking to him, but she found herself interested in what he was talking about, after choking down the voice of guilt that scolded her for gossiping about her two colleagues, she quietly listened to Kijima go on and on about them._

 _"But I think, that one day, they'll surprised us with some sort of huge confession." he finished, then he sighed "Too bad Kanae-chan's taken," he said before turning to Kyoko "Oh, well, there are plenty more fish in the sea!"_

 _Oh, hell no, he did not just refer to her as a fish, that was her cue, as Kyoko got up, and started to walk away._

 _"Hey, I didn't get your name!" he yelled._

 _"That's because I didn't give it." She said, without turning to look at him._

Kanae's voice brought her back from her musings, she realized she had been spacing out thinking about Kijima's words.

"When's your next mission?" She asked her.

Kyoko looked up from her guns with a smile "The president said that he was sending me in an undercover mission in a couple of days, he said that Yashiro-san will give me a briefing of what the mission will be."

"You seem very relaxed, I thought you didn't like close range operations." Kanae settled across from her at the table.

"No, I'm not the one who's going undercover, it's my partner, and besides it's not really close range operations that I have a problem with, it's the operations that require interaction with the target that I don't like."

"In other words Kyoko-chan's the cold blooded type of killer!" Ren said jumping out of nowhere.

"Mo! What's wrong with you?!" Kanae snapped.

"Sorry wildcat I didn't mean to scare you!" he chuckled.

"Of course you did." Kanae muttered.

"How's it going Kyoko-chan?" he asked turning to the other girl.

"Fine, and why are you still calling me informally?"

"Because the boss says we're a big happy family!" he said in mock enthusiasm, which made Kyoko and Kanae snort, then chuckle a bit.

"Is it really a big deal?" Kanae asked "It's not like we're in a formal work environment anyway!" she turned to look at the Ishibashis who were playing around, Hikaru and Ruriko were throwing random foods and Yuusei and Shinichi caught them with their mouths, it was quite entertaining to watch.

Kyoko smiled, then nodded "I guess you're right…"

"So you'll call everyone by their first name?" Kanae smirked, there's no way this girl will go all the way.

"Sure, with the appropriate honorifics."

"So, what will you be calling me? Ren-sama?"

The girls rolled their eyes, and exchanged a knowing look "Don't flatter yourself Ren-kun." She answered.

He smirked, then decided to change the subject "By the way, I'm your partner on your new mission, please take care of me!"

Kyoko raised a questioning eyebrow "You're the one who's going undercover?"

"Yup, I'm sure we can pull it off!" he ruffled her hair and walked away "Speaking of which, I came to get you, Yukihito's telling us about it now."

"Oh, okay," she got up "See you Moko-san!" they walked away, then Ren turned back to Kanae, waved to her and mouthed 'Moko-san', she inwardly groaned, Kyoko came up with that stupid nickname and now that he's found out about it, that jerk will never leave her alone.

* * *

Yashiro stood in his office where both agent were seated, he held a folder in his hands, then getting out a few pictures and giving them to Ren and kyoko he began explaining "The target is Takezawa Kohei, fifty eight, CEO of Takezawa Enterprises, his company is also used as a front for his illegal activities, President Lory and he go way back, The agency's been after him for a while, he's been accused of embezzlement, fraud, Kidnapping and being involved with drogue dealing, but the charges were dropped every time due to the witnesses never showing up, after a while they'd turn out dead, we have proof that Takezawa arranged their murder, but no judge will take the case." Yashiro stated "Your mission is to take him out, he will be at Persyphony Hotel, where a party will be held in the conference room around 9 PM on Monday," Yashiro showed them a picture of the hotel "Ren you will be isolating him, you need to lure him away to a secluded area, we can't risk other people's safety or the presence of any witnesse." He then turned to Kyoko "Kyoko-chan, when Ren is alone with Takezawa, take him out, Kanae will be assisting with securing access and security cameras but make it quick."

"How come The agency didn't take care of him earlier?" Ren asked, as he stared at Takezawa's picture.

"The president wanted to push his case, he thought having him imprisoned would bring some sort of closure to the people who he wronged."

"What made him change his mind?" Kyoko inquired.

"His activity increased lately, and too many people are suffering from it, it's time we stop him."

"Alright, thanks Yuki." Ren smiled, and put down Takezawa's picture after memorizing his features.

"Thank you Yashiro-san."

He nodded, and as they were walking away he called out to them "Guys!"

They turned to look at him

"Good luck!...Be careful."

* * *

Kyoko and Ren sat down facing Jelly woods, she was in charge of disguise and makeup in these kind of missions, the elder lady was looking at them, eyes narrowed, brows furrowed and forefinger tapping her chin.

"Aha! Kyoko-chan, you'll be a musician!" she said, widely smiling.

"Oh, I wasn't aware I'm dressing up as well…"

"Of course, we can't have you walking around with a rifle case now, can we?"

"I guess not…"

"We'll keep it simple, the cute good girl in the fluffy dress, this way the guitar case will conceal your rifle case." Jelly beamed "As for Ren-kun, you'll be in a tuxedo, I think we should sleek your hair back, according to darling, your cover is… a young CEO, right?"

"Yes, that's correct." He said

"Alright then let's get to work!"

* * *

"You guys clean up nicely!" Kanae complimented the two of them as she handed them their ear pieces and installed their microphones.

"Thanks Moko-san!" Kyoko beamed.

"We'll be in your hands wildcat! Don't mess up!" Ren said, ducking when she swatted her hand at him "Just kidding, we know you're the best!"

"Make sure all your devices work properly, I'll be helping you as much as I can, but this mission's entirely in your hands once the target's away from the party."

"God! Have some faith in us Kanae!"

"Look at this one, suddenly acting religious!" she glared at him, while Kyoko just chuckled.

"Alright, get out of here!" she pushed them out "Good luck!"

* * *

 **A/N: alright, after this comes sniper, that was the mission they were supposed to go on, let me know what you thought of this chapter guys, oh, umm btw, the updates will get slower, because we have this event planned in my computer science club which conveniently happens to coincide with my computer crashing and I have to work on safe mode which is much less practical than the regular mode, so bear with me please until I have it fixed!**

 **Kris:** Thanks a million for your support! I'm happy you liked that chapter and I hope you'll like this one, I can't thank you enough for your sweet reviews!

 **Guest/G2:** Heyyyy, I missed you! Welcome back! Thank you so much for encouraging me, you're so sweet! Oh, and don't worry about my make up exams, it might sound sad, but together with my class we turned it into an inside joke lmao, all in all we already accepted that, and are trying to make the best of it XD Glad you like playful Ren, I was afraid he'd be too OOC even for an AU lol thanks for the review!

 **Guest 3:** It's those sweet little reviews that hit me like a vague of happiness, I'm glad you liked the chapter, I hope this one will be to your liking as well, thanks for reviewing!

 **Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing and adding to your lists, it makes me really happy!**


	19. Ch19: No more

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi guys! So, yeah…I know I said I'd be working on your requests, and I am, it's just that I'm having a writer's block and even though I have all the requests started, I'm not happy with where they're going, sorry about that! I'll do my best to figure it out!

So, to make it up to you, I'll be posting this chapter, it's a fic I've written recently, I wasn't planning on publishing it, I don't really like writing angst *cough*coz I'm a crybaby *cough* but, for some reason this plot kept bugging me, so here you are! Please let me know if there are any mistakes!

* * *

 **Ch19: No More**

Kyoko threw a glass across the room, shattering it against the wall, she hated this! she hated him! Never had she thought that she could feel that way towards her prince charming, but she did.

When she first agreed to get married to Fuwa Sho, she thought she'd be having a fairy tale life, full of love and magic, becoming a rich young wife in love, having the attention of her childhood friend all to herself, he'd be hers and she, his.

Little did she know! She let out a bitter laugh, Mr. Fuwa Sho barely came home, he spent his nights fooling around, and got back only for food and sleep, and a change of clothes, making her feel like a maid in his extravagant villa.

Work, work, work and more work!... yeah right!

She stopped believing that long ago, she'd been tempted to ask more than once which of his girls he'd be 'working' with that night, but every time, she'd end up biting her tongue.

He'll come around, surely, if not today, then tomorrow, he'll grow up, he can't keep acting like an irresponsible brat forever after all, right?

Wrong!

He was 24 and he still acted like a hormone driven teenager! That night was the best example of it, he'd gotten home, drunk, not even bothering to conceal his lipstick stained collar, reeking of cigarettes and cheap perfume, he staggered through the door, not even taking off his shoes and barking without a single word of greeting "Prepare the bath and bring me a headache pill." That was it! She can't take it anymore! Now he's done it!

"A bath? Sho what the hell! Look at yourself, you bastard! You spent the night fooling around, and now you come here, and think you can order me around?!" she snapped, the only thing keeping her tears from spilling being her rage.

"SO WHAT!" he yelled "I OWN YOU KYOKO, I CAN DO WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT WITH MY PROPERTY, NOW GO FILL MY DAMN TUB!"

"YOU OWN ME?! WE'LL SEE HOW TRUE THAT IS WHEN I LEAVE YOU!"

"SHUT UP!"

Kyoko didn't say anything after that, the impact from his slap and the emotional shock rendered her speechless. She held her cheek with her hand and looked at him incredulously.

"Leave me? Don't make me laugh! You are nothing without me! Nobody leaves ME! I AM FUWA SHO!"

Kyoko contemplated filling the bath tub, and giving him some sort of poison instead of a headache pill for a moment, then she thought better of it, she had given enough of her life to this piece of shit, he wasn't worth rotting in prison for the rest of it too.

When she stayed silent for too long, Sho looked at her, and for a moment his face twisted, and he looked like he was sorry for what he just did, but that expression disappeared as fast as it had appeared and he dashed away saying "Forget it, I'll do it myself!" and the only noise after that came from the slamming door of the bathroom.

'I need to get out of here!' she thought, she went to their bedroom…his bedroom and took some of her clothes out, putting them in a bag, she got dressed as fast as she could, and left the house, before he finished his bath.

* * *

From a payphone, she called her best friend, tapping her foot nervously, she kept looking around, staying alert for the predators of the night.

"Hello?"

"Kanae, it's me Kyoko, I need you to pick me up…please." she said in what she hoped was a steady voice.

"I'm coming now, where are you?"

After giving Kanae the address of her whereabouts, she sat in a nearby bench, the keys between her fingers being her only weapon against attackers, and the speed dial button on her phone her only assurance.

It felt like ages before Kanae arrived, she got out of her car and ran to Kyoko.

At the sight of her best friend, Kyoko let out a sigh of relief, she threw herself on Kanae, and started sobbing.

"Shh, shh, it's okay now…" Kanae soothed her, stroking her hair and hugging her tightly "Let's get you in the car."

Once they were both in Kanae's place, Kyoko went to take a shower, while her friend made a phone call.

"This is Hizuri." A voice answered.

"Kuon, it's Kanae, you need to come here now."

"Kanae, what happened?"

"It's Kyoko."

"What happened to Kyoko? Is she okay?" he asked, he was beyond worried by now, Kanae's voice sounded different...worried even.

"She says she wants a divorce." She said.

Kuon sighed "Kanae, it's always the same thing, she says that now, but she'll never have the heart to leave her Sho-chan!" he said.

"I think she's serious this time."

"What did he do this time?" Kuon straightened in his seat, genuinely curious.

Kanae debated telling him what happened, before she decided not to, if she told him Kyoko's husband hit her after coming home drunk, he'd probably go and beat him up, and the last thing Kyoko needed right now was more drama.

"Why don't you come here first and she'll tell you." she finally said.

"Alright, I'll be there in twenty minutes."

* * *

"That bastard!" Kuon said in a low voice "THAT BASTARD!" he yelled, getting up, and heading for the door, Kyoko and Kanae had to join forces to keep him from going to Sho, they both knew what would happen if he did.

 _When Kanae first met Kyoko, she also met Kuon as they were inseparable, not much after that, she got to learn all about Kyoko's group, She'd always be going on and on about her Sho-chan, and Kuon would always pull a bitter face at the sound of his name, she found out he was in love with Kyoko, who in turn, was too blinded by her love for Sho to notice._

 _"It's alright, as long as she's happy, I'm okay with being just her friend, it's been this way since we were kids anyway." He'd say whenever Kanae would tell him to confess to Kyoko._

So she understood his outrage right now, regardless of the fact that Kuon is very protective of his friends, to him, he didn't go after Kyoko, and let Sho have her for her own happiness, and having a worthless piece of crap hurt her like this made him lose his senses.

"Kuon please calm down!" Kyoko cried.

"Calm down? Calm down?! Kyoko he hit you!" he barked "Not only does he repeatedly cheat on you and neglect you, now he's abusing you! This is domestic violence!"

"I know!" she yelled back "I know… that's why I'm leaving him." She let out a shaky breath "I'm not going to lie to myself anymore."

"Kyoko you can't go back this time, he hurt you too much, this is a destructive relationship, you know?" he said with a gentle voice.

"I won't, I'm leaving him!" she raised her head, with a determined look "Will you be my lawyer?" she asked.

* * *

 **A/N: Errr… so yeah, let me know what you think! *Runs away***

 **Ehem, seriously, this is as far as I'm going with it, it was a spur of a moment kind of thing, and there will be no sequel nor any sort of continuation.**

 **By the way, If you'd be so kind as to google sites copying FF. net and report them, that'd be a huge help! they're copying this site and all the stories in it, I'm sure if they're not closed down a lot of writers will delete their work, some of those sites are an exact replica of FF. net and it's disgusting because they're making profit off of them, using the writer's hard work. I know my work isn't that good compared to the rest of the authors in here but I'm also a reader and I enjoy their work immensely, so please report the people stealing their work!**

 **Kris:** Hi, thank you so much, I'm glad you didn't think Ren was OOC, And thank you so much for being so kind as to wait for me, it means a lot, I can't say that enough I love you guys so much! I do think I will be able to update soon, I recently discovered that I might not have to pass make up exams, since I've worked hard enough through the semester to compensate with the exams and barely pass this semester, which is such a relief because I'll have more free time instead of spending it studying!

 **Guest/G2:** Hello :D Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it! I believe that Ren has fallen for her already, but he's in denial, and well, you know how things go in their profession, they'll probably drag it for ages XD I'll do my best to update thank you for putting up with me!


	20. Ch20: I Believe in Ghosts Do You?

I do not own Skip Beat!

* * *

H-Hello! I AM SO SORRYYYYYYYY! for taking so long to update! I'm going through a seriously dry phase right now, writer's block doesn't not even beggin to describe it! In fact I was only inspired to write this chapter after checking _tumblr user **bleep0bleep** 's_ prompt generator, it's pure genius and I love it! (the link to it is in my fanfiction tag in my own tumblr blog) anyway, I'm not promissing anything but now that I found this little gem, I might get more productive, meanwhile enjoy this chapter! Oh, I also have a couple of chapters for KyokoRen week on tumblr for this april, so look forward to that :D

One last thing, **I got a beta reader!** The kindest soul, **Theriechenbachevent** has kindly agreed to polish my stories, and thanks to her I'm more confident in these little AUs ( You guys should check her stories, I'm in the middle of reading them, trust me, PURE GOLD!) and if any of you is a writer in need of a beta, she's an excellent one!

with all my love, this is dedicated to you **Theriechenbachevent** :D Thank you for your hard work!

I hope you guys enjoy this!

* * *

 **Ch 20 : I Believe in Ghosts. Do You?**

 _Ugh!_ Kyoko cringed making her way through the tombstones, she just had to live at the end of a cemetery and she just had to be the freak with an ability to see supernatural creatures!

 _'Keep walking, don't look, don't look, don't look!'_ She told herself inwardly, sliding her way through the ghosts and specters around her. The phrase had become her daily mantra.

Kyoko was a young woman in her twenties who worked at a drugstore and even though she would much rather have preferred the night shift, her boss insisted on enforcing his 'no female workers at night' policy. While said policy might have been practical for the safety of your 'normal female', Kyoko was worried about a different kind of safety. In her mind, she'd be far safer working through the night shift rather than walking through the graveyard after her afternoon shift ended.

"Just act naturally, they usually don't act up if they think someone can't see them."

"Eeeep!" Kyoko yelped at the deep voice that brought her out of her musings, half stumbling over her own feet. The owner of the voice was a young man, clad in dark jeans and a gray hoodie. He was quite tall, much taller than her. His hair was dark but seemed to be quite soft and for a moment she caught herself thinking what would it feel like if she touched it. He looked at her through his chocolate brown eyes, his lips curled up in an amused smile.

"Sorry, did I scare you?" he asked, the grin turning sheepish at her obvious surprise.

Kyoko's mind briefly flashed her images of her mother warning her not to talk to strangers, before she discarded them.

'Screw it! I'm more scared of those things than of him right now.' She thought. Anything would be a welcome distraction to her current predicament.

"That's alright." She said after finding her voice again. "Can you see them too?"

"Yes, for quite sometime now." He said. "I'm Ren by the way."

"Kyoko. Mogami Kyoko." Kyoko smiled, a bit relaxed now that she weren't alone. "Nice to meet you Ren-san."

"The pleasure is all mine." He chuckled at her politeness. "So what would a young lady like you be doing in a cemetery at this time of night?" he asked.

"Well, my house is at the other end of it and I just got out of work." Unfortunately for her, walking home after the sunset was just as bad as doing it at midnight. In fact those things seemed to be the most active at twilight,that bizarre slice of time between sunlight and sundown.

"Why are you living there? If you don't mind me asking of course." He said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, the house was in my family way before it turned into a graveyard and for some reason my mom didn't want to sell it and move away from this creepy place…something about keeping the property in the family or whatever."

"I see." he shrugged "Guess you could always get your own place later on…"

"Assuming I'd be able to afford it." She snorted at the ludicrousness of the suggestion.

"Student loans?" he asked dryly.

"What else?" They exchanged a knowing look before they both started laughing, bonding over the inside joke that only students would understand.

"So how long have you being seeing these guys Kyoko-chan?" he asked gesturing to one of the spirits lurking nearby.

"Basically…since I was born, or at least for as long as I can remember…" She shivered at the thought.

"And you're still not used to them?" he asked incredulously.

"Are you?" she retorted without hesitating.

"Guess you could say I don't really have a choice." He said, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Well, no matter how many times they pop out, I just can't act cool about it." She paused "That's my place, guess this is goodbye." She said.

Now that she thought about it, her house was the only inhabited place around, so where was he going? She was lost in thought before a cold hand pulling at her ankle brought her back to the current situation

"Aaaack!" She kicked the thing away, making her stumble back, crashing into Ren's broad chest.

"Sorry, I get a little jumpy walking through a cemetery haha." She joked, as she pulled away to stand on her own, trying to brush off the embarrassing incident.

"That's alright, I used to get scared when I was alive too." He said as he turned to walk away, leaving her in a frozen state.

'No freaking way.' She thought, not daring to believe what he'd just said.

"See you tomorrow Kyoko-chan." He turned and waved at her before fading into a thin cloud of mist.

* * *

 **A/N: (insert creepy dracula music here) lol so? what did you think ? sorry if it was short :/**

 **while the story was based on a prompt by the previously mentioned generator, the ending was inspired by a popular joke in my country lol which made just creepy enough for a light-horror AU? and my beta said that it was an unexpected ending so I guess it served its purpose :D**

 **Kris:** Haha almost got fooled by the summary XD I would never write something that will bring my OTP apart (I hope I won't regret saying this XD ) I hate Fuwa as well, or should I say I love to hate him? thank you for reading and reviewing I hope this chapter will be to your liking :D

 **Guest1:** I'm glad you like it :D and even though I do agree on the fact that Kyoko is a strong cookie , let's keep in mind that in that AU she didn't go through the life changing experiences she went through in the manga that toughened her up ;) thank you for taking the time to read and review it means a lot !

 **Gues2/G2:** Oh, boy :D you have it all figured out lol I love it when you guys figure out your own continuations! that's what's awesome about open endings, but just for the sake of it, I'll jump in : she will divorse Sho, there's no doubt! Kuon will be her lawyer, Yashiro...hmmm, maybe we can make him a PI that would help bring evidence about Sho's infidelity?and as for Lory, I think your setting for him is just perfect! let's make him Kuon's boss :D Kyoko and Kuon will end up together! aaand that's all I'm saying XD no sequel for that AU. thank you so much for your review!

 **Lennie:** (for your review on chapter 1) you have no idea how happy it makes me reading that you guys love these oneshots, and I'm glad you share my love for AUs and that they bring you joy! thank you so much for your review!


	21. Ch21: Dark Moon Glamour

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi guys! So this is my fanfic for KyokoRen week on tumblr for the 'Glamour' prompt, I'm not doing all the prompts unfortunately but this will not be the only one.

Thanks a million to my adorable Beat reader **Theriechenbachevent** , thanks to her this fanfic is way more pleasant to read!

AU in which Mizuki doesn't exist and Katsuki's love interest is Mio instead.

* * *

 **Ch 21 : Dark Moon Glamour**

He was invited to his fiancé's family's new year's eve party. In all honesty, he was attending for the sake of appearances, he himself would have been more than happy to skip the festivities. But what would people think if the Hongo family's soon-to –be son in law weren't present to support his future wife? That would be unacceptable! …And his plans would be ruined.

 _Ruined._

Yes.

That's what he felt looking at Miss Hongo.

And not the one he was promised to.

No. The one who made him feel ruined was her younger sister. Hongo Mio. His student.

She descended the staircase, a frigid look on her face. She didn't bother greeting anyone, her entrance was more than enough. She was clad in a simple black evening dress with black high heels, and her hair pulled up into a messy twist. The scar on her temple almost as decorative as her jewels, adding to her forbidding charm.

How could someone look so devastatingly beautiful and so cruel at the same time? And att such a young age?

* * *

Those were his thoughts then. And those are his thoughts now. Five years later, after marrying her.

Of course she'd figure his plan out. And of course she'd confront him. And of course she'd offer her help with his plans to get back at her disgusting family… And of course he'd give them up for her sake.

At that new year's eve party, five years ago, he had gone out to the balcony to take a breath. Mingling with opportunistic elites wasn't his favorite pastime and he wasn't going to start pretending he enjoyed it now. He needed a break.

"Tired of faking?" Her voice startled him, he hadn't seen her sitting there, in a dark corner, the hem of her dress hanging on her knees. She was sitting on the cold floor, holding her heels in one hand as both her wrists rested on her bended knees. She had shaken her hair loose, the whisps of obsidian hair framing her face, and staring up at the starry sky. Not the best position for a lady such as herself, but she didn't seem to care in the least. And it wasn't as if it made her look any less enchanting.

"Shouldn't you be inside Hongo-san?" He decided to avoid her question.

"Hmm? No need. I've already glared at everyone." She sighed before meeting his gaze "Besides, it would be a pity to miss this sight for the sake of all those murderers inside, don't you think, sensei?" Her lips were curved up as she tore her gaze from the night sky. That was her all-knowing smile.

She knew.

"How?" He asked, trying to keep his composure despite feeling completely blindsided.

"I've been in this family for far longer than your late father started working for them, Sensei." She tapped her scar with two fingers "I've been on the receiving end as well."

"You mean-"

"Yes, sweet little Misao did this to her baby sister." She said before her face turned nonchalant "But you probably won't believe me… Nobody did." She lazily blinked, turning to the side "Doesn't matter, what does matter is that," She threw her shoes and turned her face to look at him again "I want in on your plan."

"That's out of the question." He had said it flatly, without pausing to think. He knew the risks, he knew that after saying that she might give him away, flushing his plan and years of hard work down the toilet if she wanted.

"I know what they did. If we're not doing this together, then I'm doing my part on my own."

He sighed "Hongo-san-"

"Mio. I've always hated that name that binds me to them."

"Mio-san, I don't think-"

"And I don't care what you think, I'm making sure they pay for what they did."

"You don't understand-"

"No, You don't understand! _I_ have to spend every day with them, knowing the things they did, and the things they plan to do. Trying to imagine the things that I haven't heard of."

"Will you stop interrupting me?" he half yelled, exasperated at her cutting him off every time he wanted to say something.

The rest is pretty much self explanatory, they carried on with their revenge plan for a while, before realizing how much it was eating at them. They got closer while working on said plan, which made it even worse. There is no need to talk about the breakdown, or even about the emotionally charged moment when they decided to let the authorities serve justice. And what happened to Misao after that, is a whole other story.

* * *

Back to the present day, where he was thinking of how ruined his wife made him feel, Katsuki sighed.

"What's wrong?" she said, turning away from the mirror of her vanity table to face him, while closing her earring's clutch.

"You look ravishing"

"I think that's just the new year's glamour speaking." She said, chuckling.

"Not in the slightest, Mrs. Tachibana." He said, kissing the back of her hand "shall we?".

* * *

 **A/N: alright, hit your keyboards lol jk but reviews would be much apreciated :D**

 **kris:** Thanks a lot for your review, I'm glad you liked ghost Ren *wink, wink* I hope you'll like this chapter :D

 **Sara:** lol thanks for reading and reviewing, I think we would all want to be haunted by ghost Ren *evil grin*

 **Fariha:** awww thank you so much for your review, it's nice seeing some found the story creepy, but it's also surprisingly pleasant to see others don't I'm glad you liked it :D

 **Lennie:** awww thanks a lot! I'd like to continue it, but for now I have no idea where to go with it x) so perhaps in the futur? I'm really happy you liked it :D

 **Guest/G2:** I'm really happy you liked that one, and don't be sad, maybe Ghost Ren's not really dead, maybe he's in a coma (kinda like 'just Like Heaven', the movie starring Reese Witherspoon) and he just thinks he's dead, anyway I hope you'll like thi chapter thanks for the review :D

Thanks a lot to all my **silent readers**! I hope you're enjoying this!

 **Tomorrow** I'll post the fanfic I wrote for the **'Dream'** prompt.


	22. 22:The Dream Bakery and the fairy within

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi there! so this is the AU for the second day of KyokoRen week on tumblr, the prompt given is 'Dream'. This is one of my old works I never posted it because I was gonna make it a long fic (you guessed it, didn't work XD) anyway, I changed it a bit and figured it will be good for this prompt.

Thank you so much to **Theriechenbachevent** who beta-read this and polished it! you're the best!

Please Enjoy!

* * *

 **Ch 22: The Dream Bakery and The Fairy Within.**

I was out too early again, driving in the unusually empty streets of Tokyo, with barely enough caffeine in my system to keep me from dozing off at the steering wheel.

 _Damn that president!_ He chooses the oddest times to ask for me. He called me this morning, waking me up and saying that I had to pay him a visit, in that frightengly creepy cheerful voice of his.

This time his excuse was that Maria-chan missed me, knowing that I wouldn't be able to refuse her. That little girl had the most convincing pair of puppy dog eyes I've ever seen on a human being, how are you supposed to say no to that?!

As I drove dove down the streets, slowly filling with people, I realized that I needed to get something for when I arrived, the wise knew better than to go empty handed! As I glanced at stores on my route, I saw that all the stores are closed … it figured, it was 7 AM, ON A FREAKING SUNDAY! Who would be insane enough to get out of bed at this time? Well, other than me…

Suddenly, a girly pale pink banner caught my eye.

 _What's that?_

It had the words "The Fairy Dream Bakery" written on it. I thought for a moment, before deciding. _Yeah, pastry should do fine, right?_ Ok here we go.

I parked and got out of my car, making my way to the bakery. Even though the name was…contrived, it was a larger store on the inside than what it initially looked like. The banner was beautiful, and the cakes displayed on the windows looked amazingly delicate and delicious.

As I walked in, the door made a nice sound as it hit the bell that hung above it. I was greeted by the sweet smell of chocolate, vanilla and a mix of fruits and spices.

"Hello?" I said as I approached the counter, hoping for someone who could help me pick something for Maria, I wasn't the best guy out there when it came it food.

A figure emerged from where I supposed was the kitchen or the workshop or whatever those backrooms were called.

"Hello, welcome"

They greeted me in a warm voice, looking up from one of the cakes to get a visual on the other presence, I was dazzled.

Those words came from a young woman, who gave me a soft smile, she had long black hair that was held up into a ponytail, big amber eyes that almost hid under her bangs, and the cutest pair of dimples in the middle of her cheeks. Under her white apron, she was wearing a pastel yellow summer dress that stopped just under her knees and a pair of wedge sandals with some sort of floral pattern. I shocked myself at how much I noticed about her at first glance, I'm not usually like this and I sound like a pervert for crying out loud, in my own head!

She must have noticed my awkward silence as she spoke again soon after that.

"What can I do for you?" She said, her soft smile turning into a polite, professional one.

"Oh, umm, I was looking for …umm… what would you recommend as a gift to a kid?" I couldn't believe I was stuttering! _Get a grip!_

"Hmm let's see…" she said as her eyes became distant and put her hand to her chin "Is it a girl or a boy?" she asked, turning her head to face me again.

"It's a girl." She literally lit up when I said that, her expressing becoming even more adorable than it already was.

"Well, in that case," she bounced on the balls of her feet to the little display fridge on the right of the counter "if you want a cake, then maybe the 'Butterfly' chocolate cake would be convenient, if not, girls tend to really like the 'Rose Garden' as well, it's strawberry flavored!" She said as she pointed to a couple of cakes, her eyes shining with joy. The first one was a square shaped chocolate cake. It was decorated with little butterflies made out of dark, milk and white chocolate and little lumps of chocolate whipped cream sat perfectly on the edges.

The second one was a round cake frosted with vanilla cream cheese with pink whipped cream bordering it, strawberry flavored too, I suppose. It was decorated with little branches full of roses and on the sides you could see the strawberries that were used to fill the middle of the cake.

My attention tore away from the little pieces of art as I saw her move energetically again to the tall display fridge that stood in the middle of the left side of the bakery, gesturing to the desserts inside.

"If you're more interested in smaller pastries, then maybe the surprise macaroons would be better. There are seven different flavors available today: hazelnut, chocolate, blueberry, tangerine, strawberry, banana and green apple." With her wide smile still persistently there and her eyes sparkling, you could tell from the face she was making how much she enjoyed her job.

"Why are they called surprise macaroons?" I asked even though I wasn't nearly as interested in the dessert as I was in her.

"Well," she had a playful look on her face "inside every macaroon there's a little treat, say a nut or a fruit sometimes even a candy that can only be discovered by biting into it!" she crinkled her nose as she clamped her fingers together with her thumb to mimic a bite.

"Oh, like a nut in the hazelnut flavored one?" Why was I asking this again?

"Well, it's a little more subtle than that." she said, chuckling "Oh, and even the ones of the same flavor, have different surprises inside." she explained.

"That's a very interesting dessert!" _Smooth, reaaaal smooth!_

"Thank you." _Whadaya know, it worked!_ She blushed lightly at my comment.

"Alright then, I'll have the butterfly chocolate cake, and two of each flavor of the surprise macaroons." Was that too obvious?

"Right away!" She chirped as she put on a pair of plastic gloves, and covered her hair with a white cloth, for hygiene purposes. She took out the cake carefully out of the display fridge, and put it inside a pale pink box. Then, she headed to the one in the middle and started putting the macaroons inside a long square box, lined with a reddish pink delicate wrinkled paper. Finally, putting the lid on the box made it look more like a jewelry case.

The entire store screamed of sophistication and luxury, I realized as I prepared myself to pay quite a little fortune. Not that it wasn't worth it.

"Here you are sir!" she said as she put my boxes in a big decorated paper bag.

"How much do I owe you?" I asked pulling out my credit card.

"That would be 4,200 yen."

"Really? Did you forget to add the price of the cake or something?" I asked half jokingly before inwardly kicking myself, everything I said today seemed wrong to me.

"No, that's the price of your whole purchase." she said.

"Oh, that's quite … reasonable, I thought it would be more expensive" I said as I gave her the card.

"Well, the goal of the bakery is to provide desserts that are affordable by to people, while maintaining their quality, of course!" she said proudly smiling as she swept the card through.

"That's quite the challenge isn't it?" I was surprised, how could she keep up this kind of shop without raising the prices of her products? the buisnessman in me yelled.

"Yup, but that's the fun part!" She gave my credit card back. "Here's your receipt, thank you for your purchase, I hope she'll like them!"

"Thank you, have a nice day…Kyoko." I said pointing to her name tag, as if I had just seen it.

"Have a nice day!" she said smiling at me one last time before I left.

As I walked out I realized, she had no idea who I was, which was kind of refreshing.

She had to have read my name on the credit card, and yet still didn't know.

She didn't faint when she first saw me either or rudely stare or try to flirt with me, which was what most women did around me. Tsuruga Ren, young CEO of the LME enterprises and –according to every Japanese magazine– Japan's most desired bachelor.

But then again I never paid any attention to that kind of behavior anyway.

So why was I so disappointed that she -amongst all the other women- didn't fall for my charms?

Kyoko, proud owner of 'The Fairy Dream Bakery', walking away from her felt like waking up from a dream, one that enchanted and mesmerized.

One thing was for sure, _I'll be visiting your dreamland again!_

* * *

 **A/N: alright! I'm looking forward to your reviews!**

If you guys are on tumblr check out the #KyokoRen week tag, lots of good stuff there and feel free to message mme, I've the same username (I make stupid memes and I fangirl about my OPTs xD)

Tomorrow, I'll post the **'Spotlight'** entry!

 **Kris:** I'm glad you liked that one, I hope this one will be just as good :D thanks a lot for your review!


	23. Ch23: Share the Spotlight

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Alright guys, this is the third day of KyokoRen week and here's the chapter for the 'Spotlight' prompt!

I hope you'll enjoy this, sorry if it's not as good as the previous ones I didn't have time to pass it on to my lovely Beta reader, so I'll be relying on you to let me know if there are any mistakes, please.

 **Ps. read the note at the bottom, it might interest you!**

* * *

 **Ch23: Share the Spotlight**

I stood there in the dark, waiting for my queue.

I knew somehow that he was right there as well, a few feet away from me. It should've made me less nervous, but somehow it did the exact opposite.

I would be much afraid of messing up with him there.

I take a deep breath to calm myself. _calm down Kyoko, you've done this a million times._

 _Ugh!_ who was I kidding, no amount of times would prepare me for this.

I'm supposed to get an Award tonight. _Best Actress Award_. And he was the one who was handing it to me.

He had received Best actor award earlier, and I acted like such an idiot. I was so proud of him I actually whistled when everyone was clapping. _I whistled!_

I wasn't even aware I could whistle!

He laughed it off, of course. Flashing me that perfect row of pearly white teeth. And when I apologized he said it actually made him happy how enthusiastically I was cheering on him. And Since he didn't smile his creepy gentlemanly smile at me, I supposed he meant it.

"Relax, Mogami-san! You've done this before." His deep voice came caressing through the dark.

Turning to where I believed he was standing, and for the first time I realized it wasn't really that dark as I could see every feature of his face.

I smile nervously, not trusting myself to utter a single word.

He smiles back.

One of the crew gestures for him to go , and before he makes his way to the stage he pats my shoulder, smiles and winks at me "I'll see you in a moment." He says.

 _Damn him!_ Doesn't he know that he just made the condition of my poor knees a hundred times worse?

I couldn't tell how much time had passed before the same stagehand prompted me to join my sempai on the stage, it seemed like I lost my senses when he turned to me and said "Please welcome Kyoko!"

I relied on my public persona to lead me to the stage without making an embarrassment of myself. It was him who taught me how to build it. "Act the same way you always do, just more confident and with less apologies" he had said.

I received my award, and thanked everyone I was grateful to. Starting with him of course. It surprised me how comfortable I was standing on that stage next to him, facing a sea of famous people but not seeing anyone but him for some reason. The person who made me so nervous just moments ago.

'Actors are selfish beings', they say, 'they don't like sharing the spotlight with anyone else.'

Well, I beg to differ. If it's him, I don't mind sharing the spotlight for a lifetime.

* * *

 **A/N: There you go! I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the rest of the prompts, so just to be safe we'll say that this is the last one. Please review!**

 **Kris:** Ohhh, I'm happy it suited your taste (pun very much intended XD) I love cakes and baking and hmmmm bakeries are a heavenly place to me XD hope this chapter won't disappoint you! Thanks for the review!

 **Lennie:** Awwww thank you so much! Well, I'm not sure about a sequel right now, but perhaps in the summer break, when I'll have more time (hey it's in less than two months!) glad you liked the chapters, thanks for the review!

 **Guest:** gaaaaahhh you guys are just so sweeeeeeet! ( again, pun intended XD) I'm so happy you liked it, sorry it has to remain a oneshot for now, but maybe in the future … *wink wink* thanks for the review!

 **Sara:** Thank you so much for reading and reviwing! I'm really happy you like the updates, are you enjoying KyokoRen week?

 **Note to all readers:** Alright, so since a lot of you asked me to turn most of the stories into **full fics** , I was thinking that maybe in the summer break **I might do that** :D I'll be picking the 5 stories that have the most reviews and make a poll in which you'd vote for the one you like best! So if there's a specific chapter that you really like, go review it I'll be picking the five stories in May, 10th so that gives you a month to review, I'll have the poll up after that and leave it until June, 10th so that I'd start writing it right after **.**

 **Disclaimer…ish :** Alright guys, I'm not gonna lie, the story (whichever it might be) will have a minimum amount of romantic scenes (If you're expecting steamy and thoroughly described kissing scenes, you'll be disappointed) it's better that way, I'm not good at those and I'll just end up butchering it and delivering a traumatizing experience to you guys (not even kidding X) …)

So I'll just make the romantic scenes sweet and fluffy to suit a larger audience :) as you might have noticed my fics should be K+ rated at most, but I rate them T just to be safe.

 **END of really long note :p**


	24. Ch24: Library Card

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi guys! I shamelessly came in with a short chapter xD I'm sorry for the short, late updates or lack thereof. I could go on and on and burry you in my lame excuses but I'll spare you the trouble of an unnecessary read x)) Let me know if there are any mistakes, I didn't have the time to send this to my lovely beta reader. Enjoy!

* * *

 **Ch24: Library card.**

"Alright, hear this one out… what word has three consecutive double letters in it?" Yukihito threw in another riddle and I felt dumber by the second, this riddle game isn't the thing for me, I'm really bad at it.

"Three consecutive double letters?" Hidehito asked "Is that even possible?" I smirked, relieved that I wasn't the only one lacking inteligence at this game.

"Alright, I'll give you guys a hint, it's the name of a job."

"I can't think of any job that has _three_ double letters!" Ogata-senpai whined, although he and Yuki were the smart guys in our group, well…as smart as high school boys can get, he seemed to struggle with the silly riddles just as much as the rest of us.

Yuki rolled his eyes before adding another hint "It starts with a B and ends with an R."

"Builder, Barber, Butcher, Baker! A lot of jobs start with a B and end with an R! what kind of hint is that!" I argued.

The host of our game sighed, and looked at me with soulless eyes "And exactly which one of those has _three consecutive double letters_?" he asked.

Eh…I never claimed to be one of the smart guys myself. I looked away, hiding the blush that resulted from my stupid argument, or more like from being so bluntly told off.

After a few moments, and when Yukihito realized that a row of idiotic looking faces was all he was gonna get, he decided to give us the answer "It's bookkeeper."

We Oh-ed and Ah-ed and chuckled at how obvious the answer was, were we not a bunch of brainless teens.

"Speaking of books, I just remembered today's the due date for me to return a book! And the library's closing in an hour, gotta run!"

"Bye Ren!"

"See ya tomorrow bro."

I waved goodbye to my friends and brisk walked to the library. That old lady gets cranky if the books aren't returned on time and I don't really wanna be scolded again!

* * *

Entering the grand place that was our town's library, I headed to the counter. I braced myself for the harsh greeting I was bound to receive, we had a history...by that I mean, I got on her nerves for returning books after the due date on more than one occasion.

My thoughts momentarily stopped when I realized she wasn't in her respectful place. Confused, I looked around to check if she were elsewhere.

"Sorry about that! I lost a shoe down there!" a cheerful voice came from under the counter.

I leaned over to see who said that, It was a young lady. She was on her knees, reaching for, what I supposed, was the lost shoe.

When she pulled herself up from her previous position, I recognized her to be an underclassman of mine. We never talked, but she never failed to catch my eye. Mogami Kyoko was her name. The girl was a piece of work. She always seemed to be in the middle of a commotion. And apparently, she always managed to be top of her class. Which are, in my opinion, two contradictory features that made her all the more interesting.

"How may I help you?" she said, bringing me out of my reverie.

"Um, yes! I need to return a book." I said, pulling said book out of my school bag.

"Alright! Card please."

"Sure! Here you go."

"Tsuruga? You go to LME high, right?" She said after reading the name written on my library card.

She know me?

"That's right, you heard of me?" I asked, acting like I was clueless about who she was.

"Well, yeah. The girls in my class gush about you 24/7. It's nice to finally have a face to associate to the legend." She chuckled.

'And what's your opinion on that face?' I wanted to ask, but stopped myself.

"Alright, here you go!" taking back my card, I felt a little disturbed by the fact that we ran out of time to talk, so ever the gentleman, I asked one of my smooth questions "What happened to the usual lady?" because it would be unforgivable not to ask about the bookkeeper she was filling in for!

"Oh, Hamada-sensei's on a day off. Her niece gave birth or something."

"Oh, congrats!" I said, before realizing how stupid that was. Why would I congratulate her on someone else's fortune?

"Indeed." She said, chuckling.

It felt nice chatting with her and before I even knew what I was doing I found myself saying "Actually I just realized there's another book I need. Could you help me with that miss…?"

"Mogami, Mogami Kyoko! What kind of book?"

Great! Now all I have to do is come up with the title of a book I have absolutely no use for!

* * *

 **A/N: Hi guys! So what do you think on the high school and library thing? XD so much for being creative, huh? I know, I know I've done the high school and the library univers before but what can I say? I just love those! xD**

The riddle thing is inspired from a session on my uni's english oral workshop, (wehave those in the language center, since english is the third language taught here) and I gave the stupid butcher, barber, baker argument XD I felt so stupid lmao!

Oh, And I needed an excuse to let you guys know which chapters are on the lead for the 'turning it into a long fic' thingy (see author note on chapter 23).

 **#1** : Chapter 22: The Dream Bakery And The Fairy Within.

 **#2** : Chapter 1: Sniper.

 **#3** : Chapter 20: I believe in ghosts, do you?

 **#4** : Chapter 5: Reunion.

 **#5** : Chapter 11: Kyoko-Chan!

Alright, so if nothing changes, these will be the five chapters that'll make it to **the poll**. Remember, the poll will be up on May, 10th! So you have until then to review the chapter that you like the most. Voting on the poll will begin May, 10th as well. (Provided that there won't be any inconvenience.)

* * *

 **Kris:** ROFL! It was so cute seeing you review multiple chapters saying you want them to be turned into a long fic XD unfortunately, you'll have to settle for only one x)) on the bright side, Sniper seems to have a high chance to make it to the poll, you said that it was one of your top two, right? And I'm relieved to know that what I mentioned about the lack of romance doesn't bother you! Thanks for the review!

 **Silent. reader:** (Although I guess you're not silent anymore since you reviewed? lol) I'm so glad to see you enjoyed the chapter, I'd like to thank you for pointing out those mistakes! I got them fixed now! Thank you so much for your help! And thank you for your review!

 **Sara:** I'm really happy that you enjoyed my chapters for KyokoRen week, I really am! And I hope you'll enjoy the rest of this fic! Thanks for your support and for the cute review!

 **Shirayukihime:** Awwwww I love bakeries too! I'm so glad that chapter made you happy! And I love baking too, I love pastries and cakes, And I'm so excited for you, I hope you'll become a great pastry chef and open a bakery or a café or even both! And please, don't hold back from telling me about yourself, I love that! I love knowing about my cute readers! It seems that the chances of that chapter being turned into a long fic are quite high since it's number one , so cheer up! Thank you so much for the sweet review! (pun very much intended XD)

 **Guest:** Awww! You're the adorable one! I agree with you on the fact that Kyoko's awesome! I just Love her so much! Thank you for your review!

 **Lotus Flower:** (Super cute guest name btw!) I'm so happy to hear you say you want to see that happen in the manga, it means so much to me! I'm glad you enjoyed it as well as the chapter before it! Thanks for the review!

 **Sweet silent readers:** thank you for reading this!


	25. Ch25: Cute Little Devils

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hello! missed you guys! here's something I thought of and wantedto add to this little collection of stories :p

I'd like to appologize to you since I'm updating on a whim and I didn't get the chance to send my chapters to my beta reader, I'm sure they would've turned out better if I had, but please bear with it! please do tell if you catch any mistakes!

* * *

 **Ch25: Cute Little Devils.**

"Kei, don't run! You'll fall and hurt yourself!" She yelled, running after the mischievous four year old.

"But okaa-san! Hisa-chan's over there!" he argued before resuming his run.

From a distance she could hear a voice yelling "Kei-nii!" and before she knew it her son was hugging his friend: a cute, chubby, blond four year old girl.

"Hello, oba-chan!" she smiled at her.

"Oh, Hisa-chan! You lost a tooth!" she said enthusiastically.

"Yes, look what the tooth fairy left for me!" Hisa showed her auntie a silver charm bracelet.

"Wow! That's beautiful! Congratulations Hisa-chan!"

"Thank you!"

"Let's go play, Hisa-chan!" Kei said, impatiently before leading his friend to the playground.

"Nice move, tooth fairy-san!" she said as she sat on the bench next to a tall man.

"You have no idea how hard it was coming up with that!" he said with an exasperated sigh.

She chuckled at the expression on his face "You did well, Kuon."

"Thank you, Kyoko." He smiled at her "So, how's it been?" he asked, directing his gaze once again at their children.

"Oh, you know… the usual. Sho came to our house again last night, drunk. He threatened to take full custody of Kei." She gazed at her son with a slightly pained smile "Poor Kei was terrified."

"Are you okay?" he looked at her with incredulous eyes, genuinely worried.

"I am now. I had to call the cops on him." She let out a bitter laugh "I'm getting a restraining order today."

"Do you need me to come with you?"he asked.

"No," she took a deep breath before she added "if you could just watch Kei-"

"Absolutely, anything to help."

"Thank you!" she smiled gratefully "So how about Hisa-chan, did she cry when she lost her tooth?" she attempted to change the subject.

"No, actually she didn't even realize it until she bit on her apple a second time and realized there's was something hard in her mouth." He laughed.

"Awww!"

"It was a bit emotional when she asked if her mommy would've been proud of her for not crying." He coughed "The emotional one being …myself."

"Aww, are you okay?" she asked, this time her being the worried one.

"Well, Kotone and I didn't marry for love, but having her around made everything easier. She was my best friend you know?" Kyoko nodded with a sad smile "When she died, I was heartbroken but I was more saddened for Hisa's loss than mine. She shouldn't have to go through growing up without her mother."

"Well at least she has you! And you're doing great with raising her." She tried to comfort him.

"Says super mom!" He chuckled.

"Oh, I wouldn't call myself that. Last week Kei almost fell off the window trying to save a cat, I spent two hours hugging him and crying." They both chuckled.

"Welcome to single parenting hell." He sighed.

"Where you're both parents at the same time." She added.

"It could've been worse though." He tilted his head, contemplating the two children.

"Yeah, we could've been left without them." She swallowed the lump on her throat "I don't know what I would do without Kei to be honest."

"Same here."

 _Mogami Kyoko and Hizuri Kuon were your average young people, they met because of one thing they had in common. They're both single parents._

 _Kuon's wife Kotone died when his daughter, Hisa, was one year old. She was suffering from cancer and the doctors only figured it out when she gave birth._

 _Kuon and Kotone were best friends since childhood._

 _They shared a common belief: Love only exists in books. They were both convinced that they wouldn't ever fall in love, which got them to get married in the first place. Ironic, but logical in some ways. If you get married, might as well do it with someone you get along with, right?_

 _They lived happily, with minor problems, and when their daughter was born, they were both on cloud nine. Until Kotone's time ran up. However they spent their last moments together memories, taking pictures and recording videos for Hisa when she grows up._

 _Kyoko on the other hand, had it much less pleasant._

 _She had married her childhood friend, one she believed herself to be deeply in love with him._

 _Sho, is his name. A musician, singer and …drunk._

 _She got to discover the last part when they got married. After a week, he started acting harsh. He became violent, and would come home drunk on several occasions. She thought she could withstand it, after all they loved each other, and that's what love's all about, tolerance. right? So she thought until their son was born, and one night her drunk husband threw a beer glass through the room. It passed over Kei's crib, barely missing it, the shards of glass landing on his sheets. And that was it for her._

 _Kyoko and Kuon met in one of those single parent meetings. And bonded over the shared thought of making a run for it after coming to the conclusion that this meeting weren't gonna teach them anything they didn't already know._

 _They went to coffee shop, talked for a while and discovered that their children went to the same daycare center. They also got to appreciate each other's sarcasm and sense of humor._

"What is it that you liked about him anyway?" he suddenly asked after a moment of silence.

"Hum?"

"Your ex, why did you marry him?"

"I honestly don't know!" she said "I was young and stupid. I thought I was in love with him. Blinded by said love, I ignored his bad sides and thought I could change him!" she snorted "God, I was dumb!"

"I'll have to agree with that." He said.

"Hey!" she swatted at his arm.

"What? I mean, I don't even know the man and I want to kill him, I don't know how you survived with him for … how long did you stay with him again?" he asked.

"Two years…" Kyoko mumbled.

"TWO YEARS!" he raised his eyebrows in amazement "Wow…"

"Don't judge me!" she whined "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I am…I just…wow!"

"Jerk!" she playfully hit his arm again.

On the other side of the play ground Kei and Hisa were watching their parents acting like children.

"Kei-kun your mommy hit my daddy!" the cute little girl said.

"That's because my mom is a tough cookie!" he replied proudly.

"A tough cookie?" she chuckled adorably at the image of Kyoko wearing a cookie costume, children's imaginations sure are something!

"Yes! When I'm worried about my mom, uncle Lory says not to worry because she's a tough cookie!" he explained.

"Oh!" her eyes sparkled in understanding as she looked at Kyoko "When I grow up I want to be a tough cookie like auntie!"

* * *

 **A/N: So that's it! My 'situation' for the day XD**

 **I was checking the reviews on a book I was interested in reading and one reviewer said that the book didn't have a lot, that it was all a big 'situation' and it made me think 'Hey! That's what my oneshots are like XD they're just silly little situations that run through my head and I like to write down!**

But now I'll have to turn one of them into an actual story with an actual plot XD

So speaking of which, here's a little update on the 5 top stories, some things changed after the last time I updated!

 **#1: Chapter 22: The Dream Bakery And The Fairy Within.**

 **#2: Chapter 1: Sniper.**

 **#3: Chapter 20: I Believe In Ghosts. Do You?**

 **#4: Chapter 4: Reunion.**

 **#5: Chapter 15: You're All I See.**

Alright guys, so **the poll will be up in two days! Remember May, 10th!**

Let me explain again about what's gonna happen!

So If nothing changes, I'll put the five top stories mentioned above in a poll. You'll have to go to my profile and vote for the one you want the most, it's kind of a second chance for those who missed the preliminaries XD jk! Anyway, that poll will be up until June, 10th so it'll give you another month, of course meanwhile I'll be updating this fic so that you won't get bored XD Anyway, by June, 10th the stories that has the most votes on the poll will be turned into a long fic, with a more developed plot and all.

One last reminder, if you want a story to make it to the poll, make sure to leave a review on the chapter of said story! Because I'll be checking my sroty stats again on May, 10th and see which ones have the most reviews and put them in the poll!

I'm not sure why I feel like I should empathize on the fact that **the poll will have 5 story titles in it** :p

See you on May, 10th! (I'll try having a decent chapter written by then :p)

* * *

 **Kris:** I'm glad you did! I hope you'll like this chapter too! Thanks for the review!

 **Lennie:** Awwww *Hugs you tight* Thank you so much! I'm glad my little updates make you happy, it's so heartwarming to know that! And I'm glad you're excited for the little event lol! Xoxo thanks for the review!

 **Guest1:** LOL that's so cute! Well guess what? It makes me so happy that you love my chapters the next one will be dedicated to you! Thank you for the review!

 **Guest2:** I'm not sure if you're the same guest XD but thankyou so much for liking them and reading them and for the sweet review!


	26. Ch26: Don't mess up!

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Yo guys! Today's the big day! XD sorta… well, it's Poll-day so, that counts for something, right?

Anyway, here's a crazy little chapter, that probably makes zero sense lol but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway!

As I said before, I'm updating on a whim, and I didn't have the time to send the last few chapters to my beta, so I'll be relying on you to let me know if there are any mistakes!

This chapter is dedicated to my indecisive Guest! The one who left me the review saying they couldn't pick which chapter they want me to make into a long fic! Enjoy sweetie!

* * *

 **Ch26: Don't mess up!**

The morning sun seeped through the curtains of a well furnished office. A slender hand put a cup of coffee on the desk as well as a thick folder.

The young lady who had put the folder sighed, adjusted her glasses and picked it up again only to smack it on the desk making sure it made a loud thud.

"Huh! What?"

Satisfied by the result of her actions she spoke to her now awake boss "Good morning, Mr. workaholic!"

"Ugh… Kyoko, morning…did you really have to wake me up that way?" he asked rubbing the sleep off of his eyes.

"First of all, waking you up _isn't_ in my work description. Secondly, If you slept in your  bed, in your home like most human beings do, maybe you'd have the _privilege_ of being gently woken up by an _actual_ alarm clock!" she huffed before gesturing to the plastic wrapped suit on the chair across from his "Your change of clothes, coffee and a few papers you have to sign." She said, tapping on the lid of the paper cup "I'll be back with your schedule in fifteen minutes, make sure to be cleaned up by then" she turned to leave and just before exiting the office she turned back "Oh, and for god's sake please shave that face of yours! You can shoot a shaving cream commercial with that beard!".

Fifteen minutes later, Hizuri Kuon was looking his best. Thanks to those super handy built in showers in the company offices, he was showered, his jaw cleanly shaved and his hair impeccably styled. He smiled at his reflection as he tightened his tie " _Shoot a shaving cream commercial_! Tsk! Was that her way of telling me I look like a model?" he mused out loud.

"No, actually that was her way of telling you looked like a hedgehog." The woman in question said, casually leaning on the door frame.

"A drop dead gorgeous hedgehog, you mean!" he said, looking at her throught the mirror.

She smirked and walked to one of the seats opening a dark covered planner "Alright so here's what your schedule for the day looks like!"

"Enlighten me!"

She rolled her eyes and directed her attention back to the page of the planner "At nine you have a meeting with the head of the Hatori company. Make sure to complement his plants he seems to be very proud of them."

Kuon snorted and she shot him a stern glare "I mean it! No comments about his office looking like a _jungle_ or anything like that!"

"Alright, alright I'll behave!"

"After that, you have lunch with the board members at _Tsuki traditional restaurant_ , I've already logged the address in your car's navigator."

He nodded, which was her cue to carry on.

"At two P.M. you have an important conference call from that foreign company, Digital Horizons. They're potential investors, so make sure to be on time."

Then, pulling an envelope that was tucked between the pages of the planner she said "And at eight, you have ..." she pulled out a card from the envelope "...a hot date with me."

"Wh-what?" Kuon almost fell off his chair after hearing that.

His assistant chuckled and raised the card so that he can see it "It's from President Takarada, guess it's the closest thing he could manage to a dinner invitation!" She shook her head with a fond smile "That man will never grow up!"

Kuon leaned back into his seat with a disappointed 'Oh!'. He knew that Kyoko was too 'professional' to ask him out over dinner, but somehow, deep down he hoped she actually said those words as her own instead of reading them from an invitation card addressed to him by a middle aged family friend.

"And that's it for today! Make sure to sleep early, in an actual _BED_! Tomorrow's the centennial celebration of Hizuri Enterprises and I did not spend the last three months planning this event for you to show up half asleep!"

"Won't that be held in the evening anyway?"

"Yeah, but you're taking the Millers on a Tokyo tour at daytime remember?"

"Oh, right! I totally did _not_ forget about that!" he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. The Millers were important business partners, they were the biggest foreign investors with the company and their work together goes three generations back.

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose "I'll also need you to come and take care of things at the venue for a while so that I can prepare myself for the party, so don't mess this up, okay?"

"Yes, mother!"

Kyoko rolled her eyes for the second time in the span of three minutes. How did this man manage to become CEO again?

Oh, right! Regardless of the fact that it was founded by his great grandfather, he's actually a very capable businessman. Just not a very mature boss…

* * *

The venue was magnificent. The guests were amazed by the classy decoration and the exquisite food. A lot of big names in the industry were present and they seemed to be having a very good time. Kyoko smiled to herself in satisfaction, inwardly giving herself a pat on the back.

Then her smile got wiped away when she saw her boss trying to subtly dump the content of his drink in a plant pot.

In a matter of seconds she was standing next to him, a fake smile set on her face. "You realize that you're in the presence of _everyone_ that had _ever_ done business with our company, _right?_ "

He shrugged, hands in the pockets of his expensive dress pants "So?" he replied, childishly.

She tried to fake a laugh, to make it seem like she _wasn't_ in fact, scolding her boss "So, Hizuri-san, you need to socialize!" she turned her face in an angle so that only he could see her expression "At least greet a few people, damn it!"

He wasn't sure what to do. He knew that she only called him Hizuri-san when she got really pissed, which was confirmed when she turned to him. And to be honest, that was understandable. Through the past three months, this event took all her time and efforts to plan, So to say it would be pretty bad if he ruined it _would_ be an understatement.

"But I don't recognize half the people here!" he whined.

She sighed "It's alright, I will help you with the people from your father's generation, and you can manage with the rest yourself." She narrowed her eyes at him when she saw him avert his gaze and bite on his lower lip "You _do_ remember the ones we're _currently_ dealing with, right?"

"Sorta…"

"Sor-? …Oh, god! Okay fine, just walk with me!"

He obliged and as if talking about anything but the present company, Kyoko started telling him about every person they crossed, mere moments before they reached them.

"Oh, and that woman over there, is Fujitsu Fuyuki. She dealt with both your father and grandfather, Julie-sama calls her Yuki, try dropping that in!" she whispered.

"Hizuri-san! What a wonderful party!"

"Ah! Fujitsu-sama, how do you do?"

The middle aged lady smiled "I'm doing great how are your parents?"

"They're marvelous! Mother specifically asked me to say hi to her dear friend, 'Yuki'!"

 _And he scores!_ Kyoko thought as she watched the veteran light up.

They chatted with her a little more before they moved to their next target.

"That man with the bow tie, is Chino Minoru. He's the heir of Chino Universal, we're currently dealing with his father Chino Kojiro."

Kuon exchanged pleasantries with the man, asking him about his father and telling him to greet him before they moved on.

 _Whadaya know_! Kuon thought. If he was well accompanied, he wasn't entirely socially awkward. He fought the urge to say that out loud, Kyoko would probably argue that he was cheating by relying on her, so he decided to savor his victory silently.

"Oh, who's that guy?"

"Hmm? Who?" Kyoko put her empty glass on the tray of a passing staff.

"That guy with the bleached hair."

"Oh, god! No way…" She made them turn away from the man in question "That's Fuwa Sho, I have no idea what he's doing here, I'm pretty sure he wasn't invited! Unless your parents invited him…but that wouldn't make any sense, he has nothing to do with the industry!" she mumbled incoherently, speaking more to herself then to him.

"Oh, Fuwa! I remember dad talking about them! Don't his parents have an inn or something?"

"Yeah… so it was your father…maybe he's here to represent his parents?"

"So, why is his presence an issue?" he asked.

"Besides the fact that he's my ex, and that we didn't end it on friendly grounds, it's not. I just don't wanna deal with him right now."

"He's your ex?" Kuon frowned for a moment "Let's just skip him."

When they turned to walk towards the rest of the guests, Kyoko suddenly grabbed his wrist and ran towards the balcony.

"What the-?" Kuon started to inquire about her behavior when she suddenly gripped her head and started jogging in her place, jumping up and down in her heels.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, noooo!"

He looked at her for a moment, amused by her behavior "Do you need the rest room?" he asked.

"No! No, god! No, I do not need the damn rest room!"

"Ooo-kay!" he raised his eyebrows "I wasn't aware you were that objected to rest rooms…" he mumbled.

"In there, in the beige and peach Kimono next to Sho!" she gestured to the ballroom.

"Lovely lady, but I think she's too old for you." He joked.

"No, idiot! That's the Okami! Sho's mother!" she half yelled, half whispered.

"Oh, I see! Damn! bummer! ... So, why are we hiding again?" he comically whispered back.

"You don't know how scary that woman is! She was convinced I was going to marry her son, if she sees me here, I'm dead meat!"

"Um, okay! So, crazy ex-to-be-mother-in-law! What do we do?" he asked, genuinely confused about their next step.

"You are going to give me a lift, I'll climb to the first floor, and sneak out through the grand exit. Then, you are going back in there and mingle with those businessmen, I don't care if you call them 'darling' when you forget their names, work it out!"

"Ooooh boy! Are you sure I can't sneak out with you and call it a night? Or..! or we could say that there was an emergency and I had to go!"

"NO! you are going in there and making this event a success! I didn't bust my ass for the last three months for you to bail!" she shrieked, or tried to shriek in a very low voice.

"So, it's okay for _you_ to bail, but if _I_ do it it's the end of the world?" he argued one last time before she shot him a death glare.

"HIZURI KUON!"

"Okay, fine!" he shrugged off his jacket and linked his hands together and gestured for her to step on them so he could give her a boost.

She looked around, making sure no one was around before taking off her high heels "Thank you!" she said.

"Just go already!" he urged.

"If you even try peeking up my dress, you're dead!" she warned as she put one hand on his shoulder and lifted her foot to step on the other.

"Wouldn't …dream.. of it…oumf!"

"Sorry!" she said and in one last effort, she pulled herself up, clutching the bars of the upper floor's balcony.

"Hold on, I'll give you one last push!" once she was no longer standing on his shoulders, he grabbed her feet and elevated her, and just like that, she swung one leg over the balcony railing, and jumped inside.

"Mission accomplished!" she smiled, panting "Could you throw me my shoes and my clutch bag?"

"Sure!… heads up!"

She smoothed down her dress, and put on her shoes, and peering down one more time she said "Thanks Kuon, I owe you one!"

"Oh, what are bosses for!" he joked "Hey, I'll hold you up to that!"

"Alright, take care! I'm off!" and with one last wave, she ran away.

Kuon put his jacket back on, and lifting his chin, he headed back to the crowed of businessmen waiting for him inside.

 _Oh, you owe me alright! A date! That's how you'll pay your dues!_ He thought smugly as he waved to one of his business partners.

* * *

 **A/N: Crazy, crazy, crazy! XD I love writing immature Kuon and uptight Kyoko xD** again, the OOC'ness in this chapter is so high XD but I really wanted to write it lol you guys can think of these AUs as roles their acting if it makes you feel better :p

I have a test tomorrow, and I spent precious studying time writing this XD which is by no means surprising, since creativity usually hits me when I'm supposed to be studying anyway.

Okayyy, So it's May, 10th!

Which means, **the poll is up!** And here are the chapters that made it!

 **#1: Chapter 22: The Dream Bakery And The Fairy Within.**

 **#2: Chapter 1: Sniper.**

 **#3: Chapter 20: I Believe In Ghosts. Do You?**

 **#4: Chapter 4: Reunion.**

 **#5: Chapter 15: You're All I See.**

 **Go on my profile, and vote for the one you like the most (the poll's on top of my bio!)**, and by June, 10th the story with the most votes, will become my next, fanfic! Yes, a full one, with an actual plot XD

Oh, I'm sorry for those who don't have an account on fanfiction. Net, you won't be able to vote :/ I guess we can all rely on those who do to choose the best chapter!

Seriously, **if you have an account, go vote**. Even if there's only one vote, I'll choose the story which has it!

Anyway, see you next chapter!

* * *

 **Kris:** Ahhh! Thank you so much XD you're swelling my ego lmao XD I just love your reviews, and the fact that you're still here after 26 chapters makes me so happy! Thank you so much for your support!

 **Guest:** Awww that's okay! I know it's kind of mean to make the readers choose in my place, but hey! At least this way you're getting the full fic on a chapter that the majority likes, right? Anyway, as promised this chapter's for you! I hope you'll like it! Thanks for your support!

 **Guest 2:** XD I'm sorry, okay? but look at the bright side, I could've written a bad sequel and it might would've had a bad end, so this way you get to imagine the ending you want! thanks for your review! You're the cute one!


	27. Ch27: Have A Punch

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Yo, guys! Here's a little something for you! You know my usual stuff : sorry I didn't get to send this for beta reading and please let me know if there're any mistakes…

P.S. I'm not sorry for that title XD

* * *

 **Ch 27: Have a punch.**

Kyoko sighed deeply as she dipped the cotton ball in the antiseptic.

"You are an idiot." She said as she dabbed the cut under his left eye.

"And yet you married me," he said with a cheeky smirk "willingly, I might add."

"Shut up!" she snapped, wiping another cut under his lip, not as gently as she should have.

"Ouch!" He manifested his displeasure at her stingy touch. He was in much pain as it is now, he didn't need her to be rough and add to it.

"Suck it up!" she snarled.

"Fight me, Kyoko!"

"Not everyone's a brainless lump of muscles like you, love." She said, pulling out her stitching equipment.

"Why are you so stingy tonight?" he asked, grinning proudly over his pun.

"Because, Kuon!" she snapped, got up of the chair she was on, and started pacing the floor. "I'm tired of nursing your damn wounds every other night! Why can't you just find another hobby like golf or something?" she stopped for a moment before turning to face him "But, noooo! It just had to be boxing!" Kyoko was seeing red by now, and it had nothing to do with the fresh bruises on her husband's body.

"Come on Kyoko! You know I live for that sport! I have always been like this! You understood at the time!" he said, with an enthusiasm that mismatched his cross wife's behavior.

"Yes, when I was a 20 year old silly girl blinded by your six pack and your biceps!" she took a deep breath to calm herself "Kuon, I'm a nurse. Do you have any idea on the number of people I've seen brought to the ER over a punch in the face? Do you have any idea on the horrifying scenarios that run through my head every time you go to that stupid fight club?"

"Now, where is this coming from?" he said as he got up. "I'm good, you know that! I've never had a threatening injury."

"You've had a concussion!" she threw her arms in the air exasperatedly.

"Yes, but it was just that-"

"FIVE TIMES!"

"…"

"…" she widened her eyes and nodded her head, as if daring him to argue with that.

"Yeah, but I'm okay now, aint I?" he said with a tentative smile, in an attempt to charm his way out of that one.

"You're covered in bruises and cuts! How, by any standards, is that considered okay?!" she said in a calm but obviously strained voice.

"So what are you saying? That you won't clean my cuts anymore? Fine, don't! I'll do it myself!" he said, his own tone bordering on irritation while he grabbed the antiseptic gorged cotton ball.

"Oh, and I suppose you'll be stitching your own cuts too?"

"Just tell me what you want and be done with it already!"

"I want you to start acting responsible for once! I want to spend one night without having to worry about you being knocked out on the ring! I want…" she put a hand on her forehead while the other rested on her hip "I just want you to stay safe."

"Honey…" he sighed, caught between his love for his wife and his passion for the sport he practiced for so long. "So what? You want me to just quite?" he said gathering her in his arms.

"What's so wrong with me wanting that? Why can't you be just a music teacher? Your salary and mine are more than enough. You don't need the money from those stupid bids!" she looked at him, pleading with her eyes for some sort of understanding.

"Now, you know that it's not about the money!" he said with a slight smile.

Kyoko's shoulders slumped and she let out an annoyed groan "I know, I know! It's about your passion, the adrenaline rush and… whatever." She looked down "And I respect that, but I can't help but be against it! Can't I just give you an adrenaline shot every once in a while or something?" she raised her head to meet his amused gaze.

"Are you saying you'd drug me if I quit?" he joked.

"Yes?" she broke into a smile, before they shared a laugh.

"Come on Kyoko, what is this really about?" he coaxed.

Kyoko sighed for the hundredth time that night, she closed her eyes and her face twisted into a heartbreaking expression.

"I'm pregnant." She said in a low voice and before he even had the time to react she continued "And I'm not planning on raising this kid on my own because his stupid father got a brain hemorrhage from a kick in the face." She lifted her head to look him in the eyes only to find his face frozen in a huge smile and a couple of tear rimmed eyes, pure bliss written all over it.

"I'm gonna be a father." He whispered.

"No, you'll be a dragon trainer." She dead panned. "Well, of course you'll be a father! What else would you be?!" she added sarcastically.

"I'm gonna be a father!" he half screamed as he picked her up and spun her in the air before crushing her ribs in a bear hug "Oh haha, I'm so happy!"

Intending to take full advantage of the current situation, Kyoko spoke "So, you'll quit boxing?" her tone laced with hope.

"Err, well…"

"KUON!"

* * *

 **A/N: Well…I'm not sorry about writing this XD**

A little update about our little **poll** …

I'm keeping the results hidden because I want everyone to vote for the fic they want and not be discouraged in case their fav fic isn't on the lead. But I've got to say, the results so far are unexpected! I didn't think the fic with the most votes would be that one XD and to be honest guys, I'm a bit disappointed, only 9 of you voted! come on now 'A Different Dawn' has 61 follows, that means at least 61 of the people who read it have an account and can vote! … Oh, well! Don't blame me for the results on June, 10th!

I won't say which fic has the most votes but here's how it is:

#1: 4 votes.

#2: 2 votes.

#3: is a tie between 3 chapters with 1 vote for each.

If things stay the same by June, 10th I'll pic the one with the most votes. That means #1. If you want your favorite chapter to win this poll, **GO ON MY PROFILE AND VOTE!** Seriously XD

* * *

 **Kris:** Well, I'm glad you like childish Kuon and stern Kyoko because this is another chapter with the same thing going on XD I'm so glad you liked the previous chapter, you're so cute! I love you! thanks for the review!...Oh, and thank you for your kind wishes! finals start this saturday until June, 2nd :'(

 **Guest:** Awww! thank you so much! I'm in love with your reviews! I'm so happy you like the dynamics between those two, I sure hope you'll like this chapter :D thanks for your review!

 **Natsu Heel:** (for your review on ch25) thank you so much :D I'm overjoyed that you liked it! you're so cute, I hope you enjoyed the other chapters and that you'll enjoy this one!


	28. Ch28: Oh, Hercules!

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Yo, guys! So I put a post on tumblr asking Skip Beat! Fans to suggest some themes for this chapter and I'd like to thank **reyawoodelf** who suggested a different time period AU like ancient greece and inspired this chapter! This chapter is dedicated to you!

I would also like to thank **Midnightstarlightwrites** who suggested a soulmate AU, she has an account in here and writes some seriously mind blowing fanfics! Go check her work out!

Anyway, my beta was busy working on something for me so I didn't send this to her, please let me know if there are any mistakes!

* * *

 **Ch 28: Oh, Hercules!**

Kyoko was sitting on bench situated in her workplace' garden. It was a nice place to take a break, or in her case, eat lunch while devouring a book.

Her current book was 'The Twelve Labors Of Hercules' and she loved every single page of it. She was currently reading the fifth chapter titled 'A Boar For Eurystheus'

She was immersed in Hercules' chase of the boar that was said to be as big as a bull. She had frowned when she first read his cousin's orders to bring the beast alive, she was amused when the beast made the hero breathlessly chase him around and she chuckled at Hercules thoughts of how the boar seemed to resemble his own cousin greatly. She was excited to read that his plan had succeeded after an entire month on mount Erymanthos. She closed the book keeping a finger on the page in which she had stopped and let out a contented sight. The end of the chapter was very funny, they way Hercules threw the boar under Eurystheus' nose and the way the man in question let out an unmanly cri and dived head first inside a jar was hilarious but the best part was one Hercules threw the boar inside the same jar to pass some quality time with his cousin. She closed her eyes, thinking how this book completely changed her view on greek mythology and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

* * *

"Lady! Lady wake up!"

Kyoko rubbed her eyes, she had been sleeping so well. She looked around for the owner of the rude voice that woke her up and she was surprised to see a tall man wearing a brown leather tunic and matching sandals, his head was covered by what seemed like the upper part of a lion's head? She repressed a chuckle at the man's appearance, what kind of cosplay was this, anyway?

Speaking of which she looked around to find herself nowhere near her office. She seemed to be in a clearing, surrounded by thick trees. This was definitely not her office's garden.

"Where am I?" She asked the strangely clothed man.

"Why, in the land of Hyperboreans of course!"

Kyoko frowned "And where exactly on earth is that?"

The man who now looked very familiar, raised an eyebrow at her "Greece." He said, in a matter-of-fact tone. "Lady, why are you even here? Are you sure you're alright?" He asked, extending a hand to help her get up.

"I have no idea." She said, taking it and pulling herself up. She braced herself after tripping on whatever it is she was wearing, but the man facing her had effortlessly caught her.

"Thank you." She said, examining her outfit. She was dressed in a pure white, empire waist dress. It was an off the shoulder dress, leaving one arm exposed. The fabric was very light and delicate. She looked down to find herself wearing sandals and she only seemed to notice then, that her hair was curled and held up with a hairpin. She looked straight out of an ancient greek play.

'What the hell am I wearing?'

She turned back to the man, he had already said they were in greece which made her think he was a lunatic but her current clothing seemed to back his words up.

"May I know what your name is?" She asked.

"I am Hercules, my lady."

Kyoko nodded absentmindedly. 'So I'm dreaming. Yes this must be it.' She thought. 'I was so excited about that book, I ended up dreaming of it. It should be alright if I just go with the flow until I wake up.'

"May I know yours, my lady?" He asked her.

"Kyoko, my name is Kyoko." She said.

He frowned at the not-so-greek-sounding name then brushed it off with a shrug. "Well, let's go!" He said.

"Umm…go where exactly?"

"Well, I'm not sure where you should be right now, but I have a hind to catch and I'm not leaving a lady in the woods by herself!"

"A…Hind?"

"Yes, Diana's Hind. Don't you know it?"

Kyoko shook her head in denial. She was now walking a step behind him.

Hercules shook his head as if to say 'that won't do' he sighed and started telling her all about it.

"You see, Diana, the goddess of hunt and the moon always ran around the woods with the silver bow and arrows that her father gave her. One day, she encountered five hinds with golden antlers and hooves of bronze. She managed to catch four of them but the fifth escaped her. The fifth hind is still running around and is said to be Diana's pet."

"I see." Kyoko looked down pensively. "And want to catch it?" She asked him.

"I do not want to. I was ordered to!" He sighed miserably. "By Eurystheus."

"Right." She followed him in silence for a while before speaking again. "Won't that make Diana angry, though? You said the hind was her pet, right?"

"Well, I am planning to return it!"

"Oh."

And that put an end to their discussion for good. Kyoko just walked behind him, holding the sides of her dress and he just ignored her and turned to check on her progress every now and then.

Kyoko bumped into something, she looked up and realized it was Hercules who seemed to have suddenly stopped walking.

"Why did you stop?"

"Shht!" He put a finger against his lips and pointed ahead.

There by the stream, stood a beautiful deer. Kyoko realized after catching the sparkle that reflected in its antlers, that it was the hind they were after.

Hercules started walking slowly towards it. He did his best to not make any noise but he missed a branch that was lying there. It made a loud cracking sound as he stepped on it, alerting the hind of his presence.

The majestic animal looked in his direction and he quickly pulled out an arrow and aimed his bow at it.

"You are not going to shoot her are you?!" Kyoko said, grabbing his arm.

"If I don't it'll cross the stream and I won't be able to find it for weeks!" He barked, shrugging her off.

As if to prove his point, the hind started moving towards the water and he didn't lose any time to let his arrow loose at it.

It cried out in pain and he ran towards it. He extracted the arrow as gently as he could from the leg it had hit and right then a strike of lightning went through the sky.

"Hide." He whispered to Kyoko and she didn't wait to know why before obliging. She went behind a tree and tried to make herself as small as she could.

From behind Kyoko could hear Hercules being reprimanded.

"How dare you defy the gods?!" A female voice roared. "Don't you know the fate of those who lay hand on the sacred hind?"

"I'm afraid I'm only following Euryshseus' orders. Was it not you, Apollo that who demanded I repent from my crimes this way?"

Kyoko braced herself at whatever was about to happen. She was well aware that Hercules was currently dealing with gods. Apollo's voice caught her attention.

"It is true. Hercules didn't have any choice. When he injured the hind he saved it from falling in the stream drowning." She realized he was addressing his sister. "This act isn't Hercules' fault, but Eurystheus'."

Kyoko heard them discuss the situation as Hercules kept quite. She heard a rustling noise and then Diana spoke again.

"Carry it to your cousin. Have no fear you will travel under my protection." She said.

After that a flash of light was casted on the ground and a moment later Hercules told her she could come out.

She wasn't surprised to see him carrying the hind on his shoulders, she had deduced he would be by Diana's words.

"Well, let's go!" He urged her and she followed.

At nighttime, they stopped to rest a bit. Hercules lit a fire and he told her she could sleep if she wanted to.

Kyoko smiled gratefully and closed her eyes. She had lost all sense of time and place as they walked that day, she knew she was having some sort of dream but it felt so real. And the nagging feeling that Hercules resembled someone she knew kept pricking her. Finally she surrendered to the exhaustion and drifted to a deep sleep.

* * *

The next morning, when she woke up, Kyoko looked around for her travel companion. She realized the setting around her had changed. She was now in her work office's garden, she looked at herself to find the greek dress gone and instead were her usual dark dress pants and white blouse. She was still holding her book and she eagerly looked in the table of contents. One particular chapter caught her eye, the title was 'The pursuit of the sacred hind'. Without losing anytime, she flipped the pages to land on that specific chapter and started reading through it at the speed of light.

It was exactly the same, from the Hind's position by the stream, to Hercules' meeting with the gods. She smiled in satisfaction as she finished reading the chapter. She was glad to know that Hercules had made it back to where Eurystheus was and completed his task without angering Diana and she was very glad to know the hind had escaped his cousin's hands.

"That's a great book you've got there." A deep voice brought her out of her daydreams.

She looked up to find a tall, dark haired man smiling down at her. She realized something very important as she stared at him. She knew now why Hercules looked so familiar in her dream.

He looked exactly like the man facing her. Tsuruga Ren. He was one of her colleagues, though she never spoke to him. They worked on opposite sides of the accounting office and he always seemed to have a team of women following him.

"May I sit down?"

"Um… ah, yes." She scooted to the side to make some place, even though the bench was big enough for both of them.

"You're Mogami-san, right?" He said. "I wasn't aware anyone else at the office liked western literature, besides me that is." He chuckled and Kyoko felt her heart beating faster. "I love that book."

"You do?" She blushed a bit and smiled awkwardly.

"Yes, would like to discuss it over coffee some time?"

* * *

 **A/N: And I leave the rest to your imagination! Please let me know what you thought!**

Oh, and for the record! In the twelve labors, capturing the hind came before capturing the boar, but I wrote this chapter based on the French book 'Les Douze Travaux D'Hercules' By Christian Grenier. This is the book that Kyoko is reading in this chapter and in this version, the chapter with the boar came before the one with the hind. It's a great book, check it out if you can!

 **So, I want to talk about our little poll…**

I'm sure you all realize you have four days left to vote. After that I'll be announcing the winning chapter and I'll start to publish the fanfic. I probably will post two chapter at once the first time. The oneshot itself, as a prologue. And the first chapter of the full fic.

Anyway, I have a bit of **a surprise** for you, but I won't tell you now…15 of you have voted so far, if I get five more votes, I'll tell you in the next update okay? XD evil, aren't I?

 **P.S. go vote on the poll in my profile, don't vote in the reviews please!**

* * *

 **Kris:** Thank you! I'm really happy you liked it! worry wart Kyoko is fun to write *chuckles* thanks for the review!

 **Guest ( for the review on ch 1):** Well, I'm very flattered that you reviewed my fanfic as a guest, it's always nice to see silent readers coming out :D and I would like to thank you for reading those chapters!

 **Guest103 ( for the review on ch 26):** Aww, thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! unfortunately, I won't be able to write a continuation for the moment but maybe sometime in the future?

 **Guest:** I'm very happy you loved it! I loved your review, it made me very glad I wrote that chapter! thanks for your support!

 **FlowerGirl:** Hi darling! Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope you enjoyed it! I hope the winning chapter will please you :D thanks for your review!


	29. C29: Books And Insomnia

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hi guys! This chapter isn't too long and there's a lot of dialogue in it.

Warning: Spoilers for Jojo moyes' book 'Me Before You' **(Which I do not won by the way XD)** if you haven't read it and plan to read I advise you to skip this chapter!

Please let me know if there are any mistakes!

 **Ps: Bold Italic is for Ren, Italic is for Kyoko.**

* * *

 **Ch 29: Books and insomnia.**

She let out an exhausted sigh while staring at the ceiling of her silent room. Turning to her right, her clock informed her that it was 1 A.M.

After letting out another sigh, she kicked her sheets away, and swung her legs across the bed to get out.

She headed to the kitchen, made herself a nice cup of chamomile tea and went to get her laptop.

She settled on the couch of her living room, the only light coming from the screen of her laptop, which was now sitting on her lap.

\- _U awake?_

It didn't take much after typing those words before she got an answer.

\- **_Always. What's up?_**

\- _Can't sleep. Talk to me._

\- **_How rude! Are you insinuating that I usually bore you to sleep with my conversations?_**

She chuckled after reading that. He'd always been a tease.

 _…_ _Ren is typing._ Her Instant Messaging box showed.

\- **_How about books?_**

- _Yes, please!_

\- **_Alright, so I've been reading that book you suggested lately, not because I like it but because it is a principle of mine to finish a book no matter how cringe worthy it is. Try to guess which one!_**

\- _Really, now? Ugh, okay. If your mini rant is anything to go by, it's a romance book._

\- **_Keep going._**

\- _But you're usually tolerant of those, so I'm guessing this one has a little something extra. My guess is… a tragedy? … Or at least a very sad story, right?_

\- **_Correct! Can you guess the title?_**

\- _The fault in our stars?_

\- **_No, that one's a fairly decent book. Even by my standards._**

\- _Your standards are 'anything that has a fight scene in it' and 'anything that doesn't make your manly eyes tear up' XD_

\- **_Now, that's not fair. I'm okay with crying._**

\- _Yeah. If the character dies in the middle of a fight -_-_

\- **_Okay, okay let's not stray from the goal here! The book I'm reading is 'Me Before You'._**

\- _HOW DARE YOU SAY IT'S BAD!_

\- **_I never said it was bad, I just said it's cringe worthy x)_**

\- _Ugh, so what is it you don't like? I thought Will's personality at least would be something relatable for you!_

\- **_Yeah, I mean the man's okay. Even Louisa's not half bad, I actually like her._**

\- _So what's the problem here?_

She frowned, usually when they were discussing a book, if Ren liked both protagonists, the deal's sealed and the book had high chances of making it to his top 100 list.

\- **_It's just the story. I mean after all she did, you'd think he'd actually want to stay!_**

 _\- So you're sulking because you didn't get your happily ever after?_

Kyoko snorted at her screen.

\- **_No! Come on! You know what I mean!_**

\- _Yeah, but the thing is, I think he did want to stay, it's just that he wanted to stay as the old him, not the current him!_

She was amused by his rejection of the book simply because it didn't have an ending that suits him, usually he judge books as a whole not just by their endings.

\- **_I don't know…_**

- _Just look at it from his perspective, can't you sympathize with the man?_

She knew that playing on 'male fraternity' was a bit sly, but he seemed set on his first impression

- ** _Oh, No! I totally get where he's coming from, I mean the shit he has to deal with can't be easy. It's just that I at least hoped from him to extend his six months notice or something._**

- _Awww! So you're feeling bad for Lou?_

- ** _Don't you?... Poor thing!_**

- _She'll get over it_

- ** _Would you get over it if I decided to end my life?_**

- _I would kick your ass for even thinking about it._

- ** _That dot at the end of your sentence is so scary XD even if I were in Will's position? What happened to respecting his wishes and seeing things from his perspective?_**

- _You and I are married! Lou and Will had just fallen in love!_ She retorted.

- ** _So, you're saying that if we had just fallen in love you'd let me die? O_O_**

- _If I knew you'd go to Australia to finish your studies, then yeah, probably._

- ** _You said you wanted me to go! You said you don't want to come with me!_**

- _I know, babe I'm just teasing you XD_

- ** _I'm not so sure about that, maybe I should call you to check. I can always tell from your voice if you're upset._**

- _Don't be ridiculous! I'm fine, just don't cheat with a tall Australian supermodel x)_

- ** _Hmm? Worried?_**

Kyoko rolled her eyes, she knew that if she didn't change the subject now, she would never hear the end of it.

- _So from what I see you finished the book. I thought you were currently reading it!_

- ** _Oh, I am! I'm delaying the last chapter._**

- _Oh, Renny got too attached to a book?_

- ** _NO! I'm just not sure what to expect._**

- _Read it! It's a pretty nice ending! I mean, for such a sad book._

- ** _Yeah, guess I will eventually…_**

- _Will you read the sequel?_

- ** _Not sure. Did you?_**

- _No, there were some mixed reviews online and I don't want to ruin the first part if I end up not liking the sequel._

- ** _Yeah, maybe I won't either. So are you reading anything these days?_**

- _Yup! But let's leave that to next time, we should go to bed now._

- ** _Killjoy! … Good night hun._**

- _Nighty night sweetie!_

She logged out and turned off her laptop with a smile.

Her talks with Ren were her only consolation to the sleepless nights she spends missing him. It's been two years since they got married. Six months since he went abroad.

They had gotten married on a whim, after realizing they were the most compatible two people on earth. They both loved each other, loved books and loved their freedom.

When Ren had gotten the offer to go finish his studies abroad, the first person he discussed it with was Kyoko. And she had reacted like it was her that had gotten the offer. She was very supportive and encouraged him to follow his ambitions.

The only inconvenient is the long distance relationship. Australia's not exactly next door and meeting once a month was the best they could do.

But these chats in the middle of the night were nice. These chats allowed them to feel a little close.

Besides, four months from now he'd be back and by her side and they can discuss all the books in the world without the barrier of their computer screens.

* * *

 **A/N: always wanted to write about bookworm Ren and Kyoko xD and the thoughts above are mostly mine after reading that book, it doesn't mean I don't like it, it's one of my favorites. I advise everyone to read it. *cough* I finished it in three days *cough***

Anyway! I know what you're all waiting for XD

Here are the results of the poll (you can confirm them by checking it in my profile, I turned it into an open poll after I closed the voting!)

Ch 20: I Believe In Ghosts. Do You? - 6 votes out of 18 (33%)

Ch 22: The Dream Bakery And The Fairy Within. - 4 votes out of 18 (22%)

Ch 15: You're All I See. - 3 votes out of 18 (16%)

Ch 4: Reunion. - 3 votes out of 18 (16%)

Ch 1: Sniper. - 2 votes out of 18 (11%) (This actually shocked me since a lot of you asked for it in the reviews XD)

So there you have it :D **Ch 20: I Believe In Ghosts. Do You? won the poll!** you guys sure love ghots, huh? lol well, I hope I won't disappoint you!

And…I know I promised you a surprise last time, so here it is (even thought I only gor 3 more votes *pouts*):

I noticed that a lot of you have been asking in the reviews for two chapters in particular besides the one that won the poll, which are **Ch1: sniper. and Ch22; The Dream Bakery And The Fairy Within.**

And since I think it's a bit unfair for the guest readers who couldn't vote on the poll I decided to write something for those!

Although I'm warning you, it will be after I finish posting the fanfiction of the chapter that won the poll. And I don't know how long the 'something' I write for those two will be, it could be one chapter long like it could be 10 chapters long, so I'm not promising anything here!

Anyway, I hope you liked the surprise! I will start publishing the winning fanfic as of tomorrow! The first time I'll publish the chapter that was already posted here on 'A Diffrerent Dawn' as a prologue and the first chapter which will be a new one, so those who read the oneshot here, should just read the other chapter!

* * *

 **Sara:** Thank you so much for your continued support, I'm glad you're still reading and I hope you're enjoying the chapters! I'm sorry that the site onlyallows the registered users to vote on polls L But I hope you would still enjoy the new fic :D thanks for your review!

 **Mika4894 (for your review on ch1):** thank you so much for the kind review it really made me happy, I'm sorry that sniper isn't the fanfic that won but I will eventually write something in that universe I hope that then, you will enjoy it :D

 **Kris:** Thank you so much you amazing lump of cuteness! I just love your reviews and I am so happy you're still reading my chapters I love you so much! I hope this chapter and the new fic will be to your liking :D

I would like to thank **mimagfan** who is a dear friend of mine on tumblr, she had been reading and reviewing a lot of chapters and It makes me really happy, I also want to apologize to her and all of you for making you so frustrated with my open endings XD


	30. Ch30: Hey, what're your stats?

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Yo guys! I know it's been a long time since I've updated here, and well there's nothing I can do about it x) yup…another draught has come upon my mind and I was only able to write this after a chat with **mimagfan** on tumblr and she suggested I write a sci-fi AU, so here you go this is partly thanks to her! Please let me know if there are any mistakes!

* * *

 **Ch 30: Hey, what're your stats?**

I always believed in magic!

I'm not going to lie. I know how it makes me sound, but I do!

I mean how can I not? How can _you_ not?

Regardless of the magical fairy world - I won't drop more than you can handle on you – have you never looked at the shiny moon or the glistening stars and thought 'Woah, that's magical!'

or witnessed a sunset at the beach and watched the sun sink in the water that reflects the beautiful colors of the peachy sky?

Come on! You have to admit, even in our world, magic does exist!

…Or so I thought.

And speaking of our world…Ugh! Just thinking about it makes me understand why people would lose hope in magic and fairytales!

I mean, why would I, Mogami Kyoko, be born in this era? Couldn't I have been dropped in this earth a couple of centuries ago? When people actually held hands while taking long walks at the beach instead of…instead of exchanging 'affection points'! Ugh, AFFECTION POINTS! What kind of ridiculous idea is this? Who even came up with it? Just who exactly woke up someday and thought 'Hey, it'd be so nice to send points to someone to tell them how much you love them! Oh, and while we're at it, let's call them affection points!' and why can they only be used to buy chocolate and ice cream and stupid teddy bear holograms?

If, and that's a big if, I ever get a crush on someone in this dreaded place, I plan on confessing the old school way, ask the guy to meet me behind the software engineering building and say that I love him, loud and clear!

But oh well, that's an unlikely possibility! For now I'll just try to graduate from this place alive, get a job and get through this lifetime with as little trouble as I can… and try not to start a revolution against the excessive use of machines!

I'm not a technology hater, I swear I'm not! But living in this academy is slowly turning me into one! When I was back home, I could always take care of my plants, work on my drawings -with an actual pen and paper- take long walks with my dog, etc, but here? Here I'm suffocating!

They make us wear these insufferable suits that display your stats for the whole world to see, like literally, just activate 'Stat display' and you can see anyone's intelligence stats, physical ability stats, artistic stats and ,wait for it, vital stats! Like why on earth would I want to know a person's heart rate?! Ugh! But, I'm getting besides the point here, aside from the 'Hi-tech suits' as everyone likes to call them, we get up at sunrise, have breakfast –they make us eat gross meals prepared by automates- then go through a military-like exercise routine, only to make us spend the day sitting on our butts, learning how to make our own robots or how to program satellites or some damned skill that would bring more machines to this world!

Man, I feel so out of place in this place!...Oh, speaking of which, there comes a person who would never know the feeling!

Tsuruga Ren. Tsk! That guy gets on my nerves! He's got the best stats in the academy and I'm pretty sure his affection points memory is about to overflow since he's been receiving those from every girl in here…well, except for me that is!

And before you ask me what I am doing going out of my way to display his stats, let me tell you I have a good reason for it! We're having a duel today, our sadistic PE teacher paired me with him for the trimestrial exam, he's doing it because he probably expect me to get my butt kicked, Tsuruga is bigger, and faster and as I earlier said, has the best stats in the academy…not that I'm intimidated, mine are pretty good too, I'm just not that much of a goody two shoes like he is! If they're expecting me to go down easily, they have another thing coming, I can take him.

Oh, here comes the teacher! Time to give'em a run for their money!

* * *

The duel was epic! Tsuruga went all out on me after realizing I wasn't as weak as I seemed! He was good, really good I'll admit to that, strong, smart and fast but he wasn't creative enough!

I'm smaller and I used that to my advantage! It helped me use his body weight against him in the hand to hand combat and hide better in the laser gun duels.

I lost by one point. He is better at strategy planning while I'm more of an improv kind of girl. Too bad there isn't a grade for improvisation…

Anyway, I almost ruined the perfect pretty boy's perfect record and that's enough for me!

So with a big smile plastered on my face, I walk to the gym to perform my 'maintenance duties' it's another stupid rule our stupid teacher made up to 'spice things up' every week, the loser of the duel takes care of the equipment, setting up the cleaning bots, organizing and checking the laser guns, tuning the measuring booth, all in all, doing the boring stuff so that he won't have to.

I enter the gym combination in the security board, which reminds me I have to update that too, what a joy!

I barely set foot inside and I'm faced by the towering figure of my recent opponent, what in earth is he doing here all alone? Ugh, what a creep!

"Oh, there you are!" He says, when he finally sees me. Took him long enough! How insulting, I'm not that short!

"Came to gloat?" I ask, as I walk to the robot cabinet.

I hear him following me, he lets out a soft chuckle and I can see him brushing his hair away from the corner of my eye.

"No, actually I came to congratulate you!" He says, with an amused smile. Ugh, how I'd love to wipe that off his face! Stupid 'Civility Rules'…

"On losing?!" I say, with a childish snort. I just can't help it! Although he has never done anything to me, I just can't bring myself to be nice to him!

"No, of course not." He says, rolling his eyes. Oh, will you look at that! He's not such a polite gentleman after all! …Maybe I should try to push his buttons more…

"On almost making you lose, then?" I say, and I can feel the smug grin spreading across my face.

"Precisely!" He chuckles, and …are those dimples? No! focus!

"Hmm? I'm not following…" I tried to sound distracted as I write the codes on the robot's control pad, I'll be damned if I let him see me blush! Why dimples of all things?!

"Well, even though your stats were good, I didn't expect the fight put up! You caught me off guard and I want to say that was the most thrilling duel I've had in a while!" He says, bright smile on place and all.

"Okay, so I challenged you." I say dryly. "Is that all?" I'm programming the last bot as we speak and I'm getting a bit worried on how to deal with him if I have to talk to him face to face. He. Needs. To. Stop. Smiling. Now!

"No. I want to know how you did it."

"How I almost made you lose?" I say, turning to look at him with an arched eyebrow.

"No." He sighs heavily, obviously losing his patience with me. Perfect! "I mean how you cheated the stat log!"

I come to an abrupt stop as I'm walking to the measuring booth. "Okay, now you completely lost me." He was talking about something even the teachers are incapable of doing! The suits were there for a reason, if anyone can alter the data in them wearing them would be pointless! No one can change the stat log, not even me…scratch that, especially not me! I spend my time snoring at hack prevention class –where we're taught how to hack, in order to stop hacking, crazy as that sounds- I don't even know how to change the data on my hologram watch!

"Come on now Mogami! I know you train more than what your phys-stats say! You must have decreased the number on your log!" He argues, and I catch up with what he says for the first time since this discussion started.

I start to chuckle and the puzzled look on his face makes it even worse. This guy thinks that I found out a way to mess with the maze like firewalls of these blasted suits and he wants me to tell him how I did it! Well, that would be a first in the twenty third century!

It wouldn't hurt to mess with him a bit more, right?

"What's so funny?" He asks, breaking my train of thoughts.

"Oh?!" I look at him, lick my lips and smirk. "Just the fact that you think I did something so farfetched."

"Didn't you?"

"What if I did?"

"I want you to show me how it's done."

"And what do I get in return?"

"Well, what do you want?"

Interesting! Maybe I can milk this for all its worth.

I turn and look at him, moving on to my next task and he follows like an obedient puppy. "How about …" I stop to think about it and the truth is, there isn't much I want from him. Actually all I want is to get out of this place…oh! "How about you help me sneak out of here every once in a while?"

I know I'm playing with fire, he can report me and I'd have to perform maintenance duties until my graduation, but…what is life without a few risks, right?

I turn to look at him to gauge his reaction and I'm surprised to see a devilish grin on his face.

"That shouldn't be a problem, I know a couple of loopholes in the gates' security system." He says, and even though that is more probable than me knowing how to cheat the stat log, I still find it hard to believe.

"Liar." I say as I turn back to the control panel.

"I can show you."

"Right."

"Tonight, after curfew."

"You expect me to believe that you, the first honor student of the academy, sneaked out of this place before?"

"No, I'm not saying I did it before, I'm just saying I know how to do it." He says, realizing that I was baiting him. "In theory." He adds.

"Oh, so you don't know how! Or else I'm sure you would have put your … theory to test."

"I do know, and I never did it before because I need someone to stand guard and watch the surroundings for me, I'm not stupid." He says, his voice laced with annoyance. Apparently I just pushed the academy prince to his limits, hehehe!

"Okay. Let's say I believe you." I say, narrowing my eyes at him. "I'm not telling you how I did it before I see with my eyes you can get me out and back in without getting caught."

"Deal!" He holds his wrist up and I roll my eyes before stricking it with my own, another stupid gesture that could have been avoided had the old habit of shaking hands not died down through the generations.

"I'll see you tonight, behind the simulation building." He says as he walks away from me. Tch! he could've proposed to help me finish up at least!

Not even halfway through that thought and he turns around with a sheepish look on his face. "Did you need help with the rest of your chores?" He asks and I laugh at the irony of the situation.

"That's alright, I'm almost done."

* * *

It's an hour past curfew and I met with Tsuruga at the spot we agreed on. I see him out of his suit for the first time and I have to admit it's kind of a weird sight. He's wearing denim pants and a grey T-shirt paired with a pair of sneakers…he looks so laid back!

"Took you long enough!" He whispers, with that same smirk he had on earlier.

"The girls' dorm is heavily guarded, FYI!" pretty much like the boys', but that's not the point!

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you're here now." He says, weaving me off! The nerve of him! "Let's go!"

I stand a couple of feet away from the gate as he fusses around it, plugging his watch to the key panel, while I 'watch the surroundings' as he put it. A couple of minutes later and I start to think he's paranoid, there isn't anyone around and I'm pretty sure the guardians wouldn't be patrolling this part of the academy. Who would dare try to sneak out, after all? Besides us, that is.

"Done!" I turn to look at him and at the slightly open gate. Really? Could it be this easy? "Come on! What are you waiting for?" He hisses.

I walk out of the academy grounds hardly believing that fact. I'm out! It feels like any moment now the headmistress would be dragging us back inside but nothing is happening! No one is following us!

"So…where were you planning to go?" His voice bringing me out of my musings for the second time today and I turn to look at him. Where indeed? I didn't think we'd even get this far.

"Umm… I'm not sure!" I didn't even bring my holo-watch!

"How about I take to a nice ramen shop! I know the best place in town!" He says, I look at my wrist, embarrassed about the lack of watch on it and he catches up to my thoughts. "Don't worry, my treat!"

"Thanks…I'll pay you back when I have my watch on tomorrow!"

"Nah, what kind of man would that make me, letting a girl pay on a date?"

I blush crimson, mortified at his words. What does he mean, a date? but thinking back, my behaviour might've been slightly flirtatious, not that I did on purpose.

I hear him chuckle and realize he's making fun of me.

"I'm just teasing ya! You don't have to look so scandalized."

I punch his arm, with a fake pout and he laughs more at my expression. How did things get to this point? Earlier, _I_ was the one having fun at _his_ expense!

"How come you know the best place in town if you never snuck out before?" I ask, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I've lived in the area my whole life."

"Ah huh…"

"We can pay my parents a visit if you don't believe me." He challengingly smiles at me and I turn pale at the notion.

"N-no, thanks!" everyone knows his parents from when they visit, the gorgeous couple who look like they're in their mid twenties. The last thing I want to do is pay them a visit and tell them I made their perfect son sneak me out of campus.

We settle in the Ramen shop and the food we're served is heavenly! It's been such a long while since I've eaten something prepared by actual human beings, with actual flavors. I finish my first bowl in record time and ask for seconds while pretty boy here is still struggling with his first.

"I suppose you want me to tell you what you want to know now." I say, waiting for my food.

He looks up at me and I see surprise flash across his eyes. "Err…right!"

I take a deep breath, he'll probably be pissed after I tell him I played him. Maybe I should've waited until I finished my second bowl, now he'll never bring me here again.

"Just so we're on the same page." I say, looking at him with a slight smile. "You think I'm cheating the stat log because you noticed I fight too well than what it says in my phys-stats, right?"

He nods, swallowing the mouthful he was chewing.

I sigh, reluctantly letting go of my 'secret'. "Did you ever consider I train without my suit on?"

His eyes widen as he looks at me, dumbfounded. Realizing, there is, in fact, no way to cheat the stats, he lets out a deep sigh. "I suppose it's kinda obvious if you think about it." He chuckles, dropping his head into his hands.

Seeing that he hasn't blown up at me yet, I decided to push my luck and clear my throat. "Why did you want to know how to cheat the log, anyway?"

"Well for starters, I wanna get rid of these damn affection point stats!" He says, wincing at the thought.

"What? You don't like being a Casanova?" I ask with a teasing smirk.

"No. Believe it or not, girls send me those on their own accord."

"Well, I suppose my 'method' won't work for those…you can always mask your physical sats like I did, to, you know… have the element of surprise in your future duels!"

"Why would I do that? The suit enhances my training sessions! In fact why would you do that? Why did you take it off in the first place?" He asks, tilting his head to the side with an adorable clueless expression on his face…wait, whoa-adorable?! No! Get a grip, Kyoko!

"I just get tired of wearing the damned thing all day long…" I mutter taking a gulp of my water.

"Huh?"

"I mean, don't you ever get sick of all the technology in the academy? Regardless of the outside world don't you ever miss sitting in places like this?" I say, gesturing around me at the ramen shop. "We eat food made by automates, we use machines for the most basic tasks we do, we even wear a suit that turns us into half robots! It's just…It's just so overwhelming... in my opinion…" I blush and look away, he must think I'm nuts! I look up to see why he's so silent and I'm blown away by the bright smile he's directing at me. What the…?

"Now, _that_ , I can understand!" He says, twirling his chopsticks in his, still, half full bowl.

"You…do?"

"Yeah, I mean, at first I thought you took off your suit in a ridiculous attempt to increase your muscle mass or something crazy like that…but now that you've said it, I get it. I think so too. That's why I think the affection points are nonsense!" He clears his throat uncomfortably and I just can't help teasing him.

"Can it be…? Does the academy prince want to be confessed to under a cherry tree?" I grin and I can't help but feel like a hypocrite, teasing him about something I'd want myself.

"So? What if I do?" He says with a pout, like a sulking school boy and I can't keep my laughter in anymore.

He looks at me surprised at my reaction, before his look turns into a glare. "Go ahead, make fun of me!"

"No!" I say, trying very hard to stop giggling. "I just think it's amusing, that I share the same thoughts with the honor student about technological colonialism."

He chuckles, finally seeing it the way I do.

"I suppose the deal is off now that I disclosed the fact that there is no way to cheat the logs?" I say.

"Oh, no, no! You completed your part, it's not your fault I expected something more... complex." He says, playfully nudging my foot with his under the table. "Besides, maybe we can figure out a way to hack into the suits' system together on our future sneak out dates!" He winks at me and that was my undoing, I'm sure my face is hotter than the fresh bowl of ramen I just got.

What does he mean, dates?!

* * *

 **A/N: I … I feel so awkward… was this a silly chapter? XD**

 **Kris:** I'm glad you liked that chapter, and how awful would it be if I said that I haven't started on the other fics yet? XD oh, well school's back and I'm sure I'll be very inspired to write instead of doing my school work so that's something to look forward to lol Thanks a lot for the review!

 **Sara:** that's totally okay! I hope you'll enjoy the rest of this! Thanks for the review!

Btw, would anyone be up to beta reading and editing for me? I don't want to overwhelm my beta as she's already busy with my other fic so...yeah, if you're up to it PM me!


	31. Ch31:My one and only or so I thought

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Just a little disclaimer, whatever you will read or feel in this chapter is **bboo-berry** 's fault! I was talking to her on tumblr and we started geeking about our fav fanfics and she was saying how much she likes reading angst and I was like 'oh, I write fluff most of the time, I'd like to write most angst, if I would write you an angst fic, what would you like the plot to be like?' and she was like 'Oh, well...' And this is how this chapter was born! blame her for this! not me! (I can prove it, she wrote an angst fic called 'There is no me, without you' go check it out, you'll know this was her idea!)

...So, yeah... Areej, this is dedicated to you! Thank you for inspiring it!

Let me know if there are any mistakes please! Enjoy!...or at least, try to enjoy?

* * *

 **Ch 31: My one and only...or so I thought.**

Kyoko put a protective hand on her stomach as she went through the picture delivered to her this morning. She took a deep breath and fought the tears that threatened to fall.  
 _This isn't happening. This can't be happening._  
She had thought they were in a good place. That they were happy, content if not anything else.  
So why did he do this?  
 _Why? Why is she looking at pictures of him with another woman._  
 _Maybe it's an acting project?_ Like when they played the heel siblings? Somehow, that thought brought no comfort at all. If it really were an acting project he would've told her about it.  
 _Maybe I'm just not enough anymore. Maybe he realized he can do better. Maybe now that I'm pregnant-_ No. She will not drag her unborn child into this. She was grateful for the life she was carrying inside her and she would never regret conceiving her baby.  
But she has to confront him.  
 _Speak of the devil._ She thought as he heard the front door open and close.  
 **"I'm home.** " She heard him say.  
Well, there will be no greetings of welcome from her tonight.  
 **"Kyoko?"** His perky voice called. **"Baby?"**  
 _The nerve if him._  
 **"More like babies?"**  
How could she ever find his chuckle charming?  
 **"...Since there are two of you now."**  
Another chuckle. How can he laugh knowing what he' been doing behind her back?  
 **"Ah, there you are!** " She numbly watched as he crossed the room _-their room-_ and sat on the bed _-their bed-_ and kissed her forehead and reached for her swollen belly.  
"Don't." She said, shifting so that he wouldn't be able to touch her abdomen.  
 **"What's wrong?"** He asked, a worried look on his face.  
 _What's wrong? What's WRONG? What's right?_  
"You tell me." She said, pushing the pictures she had been looking at on the sheets in his direction so that he could look at them as well.  
She silently watched the blood drain from his face. She watched him swallow the heavy lump that had settled in his throat. She watched him sweating bullets as he tried to control his breathing. Was he thinking of some lie to feed her now?  
 **"Kyoko..."**  
 _Don't say my name!_ She ached to yell, but all she could do was look at him in disgust.  
 **"Baby, this..."** He shook his head as he glanced at the photos. **"This doesn't mean anything..."**  
It doesn't mean anything. Not 'it's not what you think'. Not 'it's not what it looks like'. Not 'I can explain'. No. He said 'It doesn't mean anything'. Meaning, it happened, it's exactly what it looks like, he sure didn't deny that fact. He just said that it doesn't mean anything.  
"Oh...?" Was all she could say.  
 **"Kyoko come on."** He said, grabbing one of her hands. **"These things happen. I messed up. I lost sight of who I am for a while but we can't work it out, right? As a couple, together. Like we've always worked things out."**  
"Oh..."  
The more he said, the less she recognized him. _Who is this man?_ Was this really the man who vowed to love and cherish her? Who promised security and faithfulness? She really can't tell anymore.  
A single tear escaped her eye. She stood up with some effort and pulled her hand from his grasp. "I need some space."  
 **"Okay, Okay just tell me you'll come back. Tell me everything will be alright."**  
After his former words, she couldn't even register what he was saying anymore, she just sighed and mumbled a faint "Yeah..." before grabbing her coat and exiting the house. No purse. No phone. Not even shoes as she was still in her house slippers and PJs.

* * *

All she wanted to do was get away from him. From that house. From those pictures. From reality. She wasn't thinking anymore she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, she wasn't aware of the steps she was taking, it all felt as though she was floating in the middle of nowhere. Everything was blurry. The streets, the lights, the people, the noise...The car that came crashing at her from nowhere.  
And now she was laying on the cold concrete.  
 _Ah, so this is what it feels like to die of a broken heart._ Was her last thought as she reached for her stomach.

* * *

 **A/N: I didn't do anything, blame bboo-berry! this was her idea! ...erm, technically, I didn't say she died...so I didn't kill her. (but, yeah... she hella dead! *runs away*) ... and tbh, I'm mad at Ren for not giving Kyoko a white day gift yet even though other girls got one, so I'm making him an ass in this one! *runs further away***

 **ha ehem! people, keep in mind that the best place to rant about this chapter is the review box below and please don't be _too_ mean XD**

 **Natsu Heel :** Heyya! Why, thank you so much! I never thought that chapter would be so popular! I'm very glad you liked it! and no, it's not based on anything, as far as I know, it's just something that popped in my head after asking a friend on tumblr for some insp XD (if any of you guys read, or watched something like it, please let me know! I'd like to check it out :D) Thanks a ton for giving it a read and typing that cute review!

 **Yuuko:** Awww! thanks! I'm so happy you actually like it!your review is seriously making me blush right now XD if I can think of way of expanding that chapter in anyway, I'd definitely post it! Thanks a lot for the read and the amazing review!

 **Guest:** Thank you soooo much! I'm very happy you enjoyed it! thanks a lot for the compliment, I'm overjoyed! Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing!


	32. Ch32: Areej

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hey, guys! So today's prompt for KyokoRen week on tumblr is 'flower' and I wrote a florist Kyoko AU for that! I hope you guys enjoy it! Thanks a million times to **bboo-berry** for beta reading, I love you! (This is dedicated to you by the way!)

* * *

 **Ch 32: Areej***

Kyoko yawned as she brushed a hand through her long black hair, she fingered a strand and narrowed her half open eyes at the dry ends, she'll have to trim it soon, maybe get a new haircut altogether.

With a shrug, she flipped it back and tied it into a loose pony tail. No point in combing it properly since it would later be covered with a bandana anyway.  
She splashed some chilly water on her face before heading downstairs to grab breakfast, she'll have to hurry up if she wants to open the shop on time. What is it that they say? 'The early bird catches the worm?'

She ate quickly and grabbed her keys and her phone, entering the shop from the connecting door, she grabbed her apron and the name tag from the counter and moved around the dark shop. She flipped the 'Open' sign and took a deep breath as she put the key in, unlocking the glass door from within. A wave of warm sunshine washed over her face, temporarily blinding her. It felt nice and she felt energized. The sun is the best for business after all.

* * *

Ren's fake smile was plastered on his face; his hands were clenched in his dress pants' pockets and he did his best not to fidget. He was not a morning person. He was not looking forward for the 7 hours of deskwork that he was about to head to AND he sure as hell was not enjoying the wait on the long line to get his coffee.

With a deep sigh, he dropped his smile -He didn't have enough energy in his system to keep it in place anyway-, pinched the bridge of his nose and let his eyes wander, might as well look around if he was going to stand there for a while.

After a shallow perusal of the coffee shop's surroundings, his eyes landed on the flower shop across the street, making him perk up a bit. He craned his neck for a better view and smiled softly as he watched the young lady who worked there bring out some potted plants and arrange some flowers around the entrance. As plain as her working clothes were, she looked radiant busying herself with the several types of flowers. The way she carried herself was so elegant he couldn't help comparing her to a butterfly, fluttering around, from one flower to another. She walked back inside and even though his mood had improved compared to the way it was moments earlier, he felt the loss of the vision acutely.

He sees her every day on his way to work, sometimes he would even park his car near her shop so that he'd have an excuse to walk by and take a closer look at her. He knew it was ridiculous and he felt like a high school boy stalking his crush. He doesn't know exactly when, since he never has a reason to visit a flower shop, but one day, he would talk to her. Maybe even ask her out.  
Too soon, he was at the counter. breaking out of his daydream, he ordered his drink before going out on his way, bracing himself for the long, boring day of paperwork. Just as he was about to get into his car, he glanced at the direction of her shop and saw her chatting with the grocer next door. Whether it was the bright smile on her face or some sudden surge of bravery that fueled his decision, he couldn't tell. But one thing was certain. He would say hi, this evening.

* * *

Kyoko looked up at the darkening sky; there were no clouds and the stars were starting to show their shimmering lights one by one. Well, the ones bright enough to pierce the polluted Tokyo sky and said city's colorful lights, at least.  
Despite the cloudless sky, it was a typically chilly winter evening, she even had to turn the heat up a notch; a stark contrast from the sunny morning. She rubbed her hands together and considered closing the shop early to go home and cuddle with her fluffy blanket along with some hot chocolate and a nice movie. It's been a slow day and she doubted she'd get any clients right now anyway.  
She absently fumbled with a rose's petals that were starting to wilt on the edges. She'd be turning this one to potpourri soon. She smiled at the thought, the rose had a very beautiful red color that would make a richer velvety color once it's been properly dried.

"Hello?" A deep voice greeted tentatively, bringing her out of her musings. She looked up, straightening from her leaning position on the counter to watch a tall man hesitatingly making his way inside her shop. So much for closing up early!  
She put on her best smile and tried to say 'welcome' in a cheerful voice.  
"How may I help you?" She asked, subtly checking him out.

What? It's been a long day and he was very handsome so, why wouldn't she? After all, wasn't it one of the advantages of her romantic line of work getting to look at all that is beautiful?

Although he almost seemed lost, like he didn't know what he was doing here, he smiled brilliantly at her and Kyoko hoped with all her heart that she didn't blush at the sight of his perfect white teeth. There was nothing more embarrassing than getting all worked up over someone who was probably there to get flowers for another woman.

She put on her professional mask and decided to focus on just that, her professionality. "Looking for anything specific?" She asked, hoping to stir him into the right direction since he was looking from one pot to another.  
"Not really." He said before clearing his throat. Does he even know his girlfriend's favorite flowers?!

"Actually... What kind of flower would say: We don't really know each other but I've had an interest in you for a while, so wanna grab some pizza?" He finished it with an embarrassed laugh and Kyoko couldn't help but chuckle along after freezing for a moment. That explains, whomever he 'had an interest in', wasn't his girlfriend yet. Of course, the poor thing would be confused.

"Hmm, let's see." She walked over to the pot of red flowers.

"Red Carnations symbolize love and admiration," She said tentatively. "Pretty bold but if she doesn't understand the meaning of flower language she'd probably think they're just pretty red flowers." She smiled mischievously.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure she understands it." He chuckled.

"Alright, how about we keep our options open? ... Oh! Gardenia means secret love, I guess it's the closest thing to saying, 'I have a crush on you' right?" She giggled, fondly stroking the white petals of the flower. "But then again it's pretty popular with people having a love affair." She added as an afterthought.  
He laughed at that and she shook her head at the ridiculous suggestion.

"I wouldn't want her to think that I want our possibly future relationship to be kept a secret." He said with another chuckle.  
"Well... You're getting her flowers there isn't really a flower that says let's get to know each other, I'd suggest yellow roses but you say she understands what they would mean and that might get you friend zoned."  
He laughed again at her mild frustration on his behalf. "Wouldn't want that."  
Kyoko rubbed her forehead, gently biting on her lower lip. Do people really believe in 'go big, or go home'? Why was he getting her flowers when he hasn't even asked her out? She thought internally, before shrugging the thought off and turning her attention back to him.  
"You can go with a mixed bouquet." She suggested.

* * *

He nearly missed her words as he was lost in her focused expression. His intention was to go there and talk to her but that was as far as he had planned. Now there he was picking her some flowers with her own assistance.

"That would be nice!" He said.  
"Alright, what do you want to include?" She asked, straightening her back.  
"Uhmm... The carnations, definitely! and some yellow roses."  
"Alright, playing it safe! That's a wise choice." She said, making a cone out of some nice wrinkled paper. He guessed it was specially made for bouquets.  
As he watched her do it, he felt bold. "You know what, add some red roses too." He said.  
"Woah, are you sure? Red roses are... Well, they're not exactly low key." She said, freezing mid motion as she was picking another carnation.  
"I know, and I'm pretty sure they would be very confusing paired with the yellow ones but I'm just going to go with my guts." It was either a very good or very dumb idea. But now that he was speaking to her, he was feeling unreasonably brave.  
"Alright, I like your style." She chuckled. He had a feeling she'd wanted to add 'it's your funeral' but he dismissed it. He'll find out soon enough. Besides, it was just a bunch of flowers he shouldn't over think things.  
'WELL, SHE'S A FLORIST YOU IDIOT OF COURSE YOU SHOULD OVER THINK THINGS.'  
He shrugged off the angry voice and watched her tie the flowers together, she had arranged them very nicely and even the yellow roses who had seemed dull at first, looked amazing surrounded by all that red.  
She looked up at him. "Want to include a note?"  
"Huh? No, I'll be giving them personally." He said. She didn't know that it was going to happen sooner rather than later.  
"You look terrified." She chuckled, pulling at the edges of the paper to give the bouquet a dramatic effect.  
He smiled and took a deep breath. "You're an expert, would you like receiving something like this?"  
She smiled reassuringly. "Absolutely." She assured him, then at his doubtful look she added "And No, I'm not just saying this because I'm getting paid for it." She let out another chuckle and he felt himself relax a bit.  
"Alright, I trust you." He smiled, pulling out his wallet. "How much do I owe you?"

* * *

Ren did feel like an idiot pacing in the alley right beside her shop. He felt silly, his confidence was shifting away slowly and he just wanted to go home and give the flowers to the old man at the reception desk in his building.  
Millions of thoughts were going through his mind; her smile, her laugh, her gorgeous eyes, the way she had spoken to him earlier, joked with him, teased him even. Suddenly, she felt so out of his league.  
But Tsuruga Ren was not the kind of man to lose to a mere sensation of 'cold feet', with a resolve, he pulled at his jacket's label, held up the bouquet and marched inside the shop.

Here it goes!

His breath caught when she looked up at him, with an undisguised surprise. She tilted her head to the side as if to further display her confusion.

"Did I make a mistake with the change?" She asked, with a soft, tentative smile.

"No, actually... I was wondering if you'd like to grab some pizza." He could hear how stiff his voice sounded, his body felt even worse. "With me... As in. A ...date, maybe?"  
He kept reminding himself to breathe, this is ridiculous, why is he so nervous? The hardest part was over, he did it quickly, like removing a band aid.

The moment it took her to consider his offer and answer him seemed never ending.  
"Did you get rejected?" She joked, and it was all he needed to walk up to her and extend the hand that was still holding the bouquet.  
"Not yet. Hopefully, I won't."

She smiled and shyly looked down before taking the bouquet from him. "Well, it does happen to be closing time for my shop, so… why not?"

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you liked it, let me know what you thought of this chapter in the reviews!**

 ***Areej:** In arabic, this word means 'the pleasant fragrance of flowers'.

 **Kris:** XD I know, I know I'm sorry... not really XD but I just had the idea and I had to explore it XD but isn't that what's great about AUs? they're not real lol so we can all keep loving Ren regardless of wht happened in teh last chapter XD So to answer your questions, yes in that AU Ren cheated, and Kyoko and her baby died and as for the details, well there aren't anyworth mentioning, in that universe Ren was simply a douche xD okey, this will get me a minimum amount of hate, sorry guys! Anyway, thank you so much for your review and for your continued support, you're just awesome!

 **Guest:** Thank you so much and I know, it was hard to write too XD Maybe I shouldn't write angst XD and as I said, there aren't much details Ren was just dumb enough to be unfaithful in that AU and Kyoko wasn't strong enough to get over it and what happened, happened, you guys feel free to imagine a better plot twist *wink wink* Thank you for the read and the review, I love you guys!

 **Sara:** Hey there! No, I didn't stop writing, if a day comes where I will, I'll make sure to put a note on my bio and close this fic and delete what's unfinished so you guys wil definitely know XD Lol, I'm sorry I made him a cheater, it was just to appease my irritated childish self XD just think of that chapter as a bad dream or something XD Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing, your support means a lot!

 **PS:** for tomorrow's prompt 'watch', I'm not sure if I'll be able to write anything, but I have some funny edits you guys can check out on my tumblr account!


	33. Ch33: Different souls, same struggles

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Hey people! Yes, yes, I've been resurrected XD lmao not really...

I'm really, really sorry for not updating and I'd like to say that I'm back now and will be updating regularly but unfortunately that's not the case because... SCHOOL, what else? But I found this in my drafts (My beta sent it back to me on July 2017 apparently and I somehow forgot to publish it XD) and I wanted to post it to say that 'hey, I'm not dead yet lol and I'm not abandoning any of my stories' and also to thank all the sweet souls that expressed their worry over my health and wished for my quick recovery after my last announcement on _**Seasons Change**_ , not sure if the same readers are here on _**A Different Dawn**_ but I'll be repeating myself once I update SC and probably apologize more thoroughly about the lack of updates too, so that's that!

I'd like to thank my amazing beta reader and dear friend **bboo-berry** for helping with these chapters!

PS: The following is a basically an AU where Ren and Kyoko's personalities are switched lol, hope you'll enjoy it!

* * *

 **Ch33 : Different souls, same struggles**

"I-It's inappropriate!" He stated. His deep voice sounding uncharacteristically awkward as he stumbled upon his words.

"What's inappropriate, Tsuruga-san?" She tilted her head in a faux innocent manner that seemed more seductive than anything else. "You're my _Senpai_ and I'm your _Kouhai_ , you'll only be taking me to dinner, won't you? Besides, it's a rather unpopular place no one will recognize you."

"Mogami-san." Ren tried to sound firm, but the moment his gaze met hers in an attempt to be stern, his face flushed and he quickly looked away.

"Or, would you perhaps rather we go to your place?" She smirked. "I don't mind cooking for you, you know?"

Ren coughed, trying to calm himself. Doesn't she know what her words were doing to him? Doesn't she know how suggestive they sound? If only she felt anything for him, he would be more than willing to hear her say that! But no, this is Mogami Kyoko we're talking about, Japan's sweetheart. Adorable. Silver-tongued. _Seductive_ even. This was nothing but a game for her. She _eats_ poor souls like him for breakfast!

"Mogami-san, you shouldn't go around saying things like that! People might misunderstand, if I didn't know any better..." He chided, trailing off on the part that threatened to reveal what he felt for her.

Kyoko smiled sadly when he wasn't looking, no matter how successful she became, no matter how beautiful, no matter what approach she used on him, he wouldn't budge. People would misunderstand? It's him she was addressing! Why is it that her flirting got every single male in the industry wrapped around her little finger save him? Why was he always pushing her away? Is she not good enough for him?

"Misunderstand?" She pouted, while faking confusion. "What do you mean?"

His head snapped up as he glared at her.

Pathetic.  
She was so desperate for his attention that she didn't even mind getting it through disapproval.

"You must know what two single people being together, alone, in an apartment suggests. Do you want to see your name in the tabloids, with 'scandal' written above it in bold letters? You're an actress Mogami-san, you should pay more attention to these things."

She found it amusing how he can go from acting all distant and closed off to fully confident and steadfast when he scolded her. And as intimidating as his glare was, she just couldn't help teasing him further. "Oh? And what about you, Tsuruga-san, do you misunderstand when I say such things?"

Would it really be that bad if they were involved in a scandal together? She knew she wouldn't mind that in the least if it meant they get to be together.

She watched him straighten his posture in his chair and lift his chin a bit higher. "No, I'm used to your antics. I know how much you love to tease me." He said, his voice turning icy and his eyes becoming distant. "But that's not the case for other people, so be careful. As you said, I'm your _Senpai_ and I must recommend you against such behavior."

'Her antics?' he scoffed at himself sarcastically. Oh how he wished her _teasing_ was more than just that. He wished she _only_ flirted with him. He wished she saw him as more than her Senpai.

'My antics?' kyoko lifted a brow and rolled her eyes, sighing. Would he ever see them for what they are? Would he ever realize that he was the _only_ one with whom she flirted the way she did? When will he ever realize that she means every word she "jokingly" says to him? That she was always sincere?

Teasing? The only one she was teasing was herself by always torturing herself and flirting with him knowing how he would respond. And now… he was throwing her words back at her. Her Senpai? She scoffed bitterly. Damn that word.

"Do you, now?" She asked, a dangerous glint in her eye. "Perhaps I should be the same with you then, and prove you right? Would you like that, Tsuruga-san? Would you like me do more than tease you? Should I, perhaps, seduce you?" She tilted her head, resting her temple on her fisted hand. Her face displaying one of Natsu's seductive smiles.

To her, Ren looked like he was fuming as he quickly got up from his seat. Though it would be more correct to say he was steaming from the words she just threw at him. "M-M-Mogami-san!"

With an internal sigh, Kyoko followed suit, and rose to her feet. "Calm down, Tsuruga-san, I'm just _teasing_. I wouldn't disrespect you like that, I wouldn't bear to have you cut your ties with me if I cross my limits." She told him, her voice soft and her smile heartbreaking.

* * *

 **A/N:Pretty short isn't it? But as I said, I wrote it a while ago and am posting it in a hurry so...sorry guys! Also... It's been almost a year since I've updated here (April 10th) yikes...Do let me know what you think of it!**

 **Erza:** I'm pretty happy that you enjoyed it! One day, I may be able to turn all these oneshots into multifics stories! Thanks a lot for the review!

 **Lennie:** Honestly, that is so sweet of you to say! Thank you so much, and I'm so glad you enjoyed that chapter! Thank you for reviewing!

 **Guest:** Thank you so much! Nervous Ren is fun to write lol (was this nervous Ren to your liking as well?) Thanks for the review!


End file.
